Ronald Victor, M.D. Named Associate Director of Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute and Director of the Cedars-Sinai Hypertension Center
Victor is national leader in research, diagnosis and treatment of hypertension
Los Angeles – May 6, 2009 - Ronald G. Victor, M.D., a cardiologist renowned for his expertise in hypertensive mechanisms, the contributing factors that lead to high blood pressure, has been named associate director for Clinical Research in the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute, where he will also serve as director of the Cedars-Sinai Hypertension Center.
Only about one-third of the 50 million Americans with high blood pressure have their condition treated and controlled to safe levels. Victor has been an advocate for improved blood pressure screening because treating hypertension reduces the risk of premature cardiovascular disability, renal disease and death.
Victor’s medical studies have gained national recognition for his studies into how the nervous system causes high blood pressure. He also is known for using innovative strategies both within and outside the traditional health care setting. As part of a landmark study led by Victor, Dallas barbers performed blood pressure checks on haircut clients and referred hypertensive customers to doctors in an attempt to reduce the high number of untreated hypertension patients in the African-American community. African-American men comprise the group with the highest rate of uncontrolled hypertension in the U.S.
“Ron is a genuine triple threat: a gifted clinician and mentor, but also a leading-edge researcher,” said Eduardo Marbán, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute. “His research is notable for its broad reach, spanning all the way from mechanistic experiments in isolated cells to population-based studies in humans. Getting him here is a real coup for the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute.”
Victor has authored more than 100 articles and book chapters, including the chapter on arterial hypertension in Cecil’s Textbook of Medicine. Prior to joining Cedars-Sinai, Victor served as co-director of the Donald W. Reynolds Cardiovascular Clinical Research Center in Dallas, where he also was the principal investigator of the Dallas Heart Study, a landmark project involving more than 6,000 Dallas County residents.
“Dr. Victor is a superb national leader in hypertension discovery,” said Shlomo Melmed, M.D. director of the Burns and Allen Research Institute and senior vice president of Academic Affairs for Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. “His creative scholarly contributions have led to cutting edge approaches to diagnosis and treatment of this common but silent lethal disorder in our community. We are delighted that this world-renowned physician-scientist has joined the senior faculty of our Heart Institute.”
Victor also has led the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute Specialized Center of Research on Ischemic Heart Disease in Blacks. For the National Institute on Drug Abuse, Victor has spent a dozen years studying the negative effects of cocaine abuse on blood pressure in order to find an effective emergency antidote for cocaine overdose patients.
Victor joined the faculty of University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in 1986, holding a number of academic positions prior to accepting his new responsibilities at Cedars-Sinai. Since 1990, Victor has been a professor of medicine at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, where he has held two endowed chairs, the Norman and Audrey Kaplan Chair in Hypertension, and the Dallas Heart Ball Chair in Hypertension and Heart Disease. He also has served as director of the Houston J. and Florence A. Doswell Center for the Development of New Approaches to the Treatment of Hypertension and as president of the American Heart Association Dallas Affiliate.
Currently, Dr. Victor is President of the Association of University Cardiologists, a prestigious society honoring major thought leaders in the heart disease field. Board-certified in internal medicine and cardiology, and a recognized clinical hypertension specialist, Victor earned his medical degree from Tulane University School of Medicine and completed his residency in internal medicine at University of California, Los Angeles. Victor served three fellowships, at Duke University in cardiology, at University of Iowa in cardiovascular research and at University of Uppsala in Sweden in neurophysiology research.