Dr. Yiannis Chatzizisis (left) and Dr. Nikolaos Spilias performing a procedure in the UHealth Cardiac Catheterization Lab
New specialists, innovative technologies and personalized medicine bring academic-level care to South Florida patients.
By Kimberly Bobson Feldman
To meet the increasing need for academic-level heart care, the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine at UHealth—University of Miami Health System and the Miller School of Medicine has expanded with innovative therapies and new services while adding physicians and staff to its regional facilities.
“We are continuously recruiting talented faculty, physician-scientists and support staff to deliver the finest patient care, offer innovative diagnostic and therapeutic technologies, conduct leading-edge research and provide top-class education,” said Yiannis Chatzizisis, M.D., Ph.D., professor of medicine and chief of the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine.
New Physicians
The division will serve patients from UHealth’s satellite network from Kendall to West Palm Beach, including the new UHealth Doral recently opened and UHealth SoLé Mia, scheduled to open in 2025. The talented roster of new specialists includes:
Omar Wever-Pinzon, M.D., associate professor of clinical, section chief, Heart Failure, Mechanical Circulatory Support, and Heart Transplantation University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Hospital/Miami Transplant Institute
Beteal Ashinne, M.D., M.P.H., who focuses on coronary artery disease, lipidology, preventive cardiology, echocardiography and nuclear cardiology. Dr. Ashinne is a foundational member of the division’s comprehensive Preventive Cardiology program.
George Degheim, M.D., a general cardiologist and echocardiography specialist.
David Weininger Cohen, M.D., a clinical cardiology and imaging specialist with experience in echocardiography, will join the division this summer.
Maria Delgado-Lelievre, M.D., is an assistant professor of medicine and founder of UHealth’s Comprehensive Hypertension Center.
Pedro Cox, M.D., M.P.H., associate professor of interventional and structural cardiology, is medical director of the UHealth Structural Heart Disease program.
Nikolaos Spilias, M.D., assistant professor of interventional and structural cardiology at the Miller School, has performed leading-edge procedures to help patients with structural heart disease, hypertension and other conditions.
Thanh Duong-Wagner, M.D., a general cardiology specialist with expertise in cardiovascular imaging, including 3D, transesophageal and stress echocardiography. She practices general cardiology at UHealth’s multispecialty clinic at West Palm Beach.
Pedro Covas, M.D., a specialist in structural heart imaging with a focus on echocardiography and cardiovascular computed tomography, will return this summer to UM, his undergraduate alma mater.
Personalized Treatment
For people with irregular heart rhythms, the best course of treatment depends on the patient. This is the primary focus of UHealth’s cardiac electrophysiology team of specialists. Nationally renowned faculty members are leading multiple national research studies and employing the latest tools to customize and develop new treatments for patients who need care for abnormal heartbeats and other disorders related to the electrical biology of the heart.
“Together with a team of nurse practitioners, nurses and dieticians, we work with patients to customize a treatment plan to help patients who are overweight and obese lose weight, optimize blood pressure treatment, reduce alcohol intake for those patients who drink alcohol regularly, optimize blood sugar control for patients with diabetes and direct patients with obstructive sleep apnea to our sleep specialists for treatment,” said Raul Mitrani, M.D., director of cardiac electrophysiology and professor of clinical medicine.
Coupled with groundbreaking advancements such as the extra-vascular ICD—championed by Litsa Lambrakos, M.D., associate professor of medicine in clinical cardiac electrophysiology, who was first in Florida to implement—UHealth’s commitment to transforming patient care in cardiac arrhythmias is unmatched.
In a review published online in the journal Circulation: Arrhythmia and Electrophysiology, Dr. Jeffrey Goldberger, M.D., M.B.A, professor of medicine and biomedical engineering at the Miller School, and his coauthors examined the field’s latest clinical trials for catheter ablation. To better help patients achieve optimal outcomes, the team called for future work that advances treatments to be tailored for age, body composition, risk for stroke and other factors.
This research is just one of several federally funded research projects the team is currently involved in.
For more information, visit: http://umiamihealth.org/cardiovascular
