Smidt Heart Institute Experts To Present The Latest In Heart Research, Patient Care

Cardiologists, cardiothoracic surgeons and interventionalists from the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai are presenting an array of innovative research data and leading discussions on medical breakthroughs during the American Heart Association (AHA) Scientific Sessions, taking place in Chicago, Nov. 5-7. 

“From participation in the opening sessions, to prestigious award lectures and young investigator competitions, Smidt Heart Institute experts are covering an array of important cardiology topics at this significant gathering,” said Eduardo Marbán, MD, PhD, executive director of the Smidt Heart Institute and the Mark S. Siegel Family Foundation Distinguished Professor. 

Throughout the scientific sessions, Smidt Heart Institute experts, including the chairs of the team—Christine Albert, MD, and Joanna Chikwe, MD—will be available to comment on late-breaking science stemming from the conference.

Christine M. Albert, MD, MPH, professor, chair of the Department of Cardiology and the Lee and Harold Kapelovitz Distinguished Chair in Cardiology, will be a panelist on a late-breaking session, Treating Atrial and Supraventricular Arrhythmias, on Nov. 7 at 11 a.m. CST. She also will present ongoing research on the effect of long-term marine Omega-3 fatty acids and the risk of atrial fibrillation on Nov. 6 at 9:54 a.m. CST. 

Joanna Chikwe, MD, founding chair of the Department of Cardiac Surgery and the Irina and George Schaeffer Distinguished Chair in Cardiac Surgery, will moderate a late-breaking session, High Impact Trials in Intervention and Surgery, on Nov. 6 at 8 a.m. CST, as well as an opening session presentation on Nov. 5 at 8 a.m. CST titled Moving Science into Public Health: Lessons Learned Session Description: US Surgeon Generals & International Public Health Experts.

Chikwe also will present a session titled “Surgical Approach to Mechanical Complication: Patient Selection, Timing, and Surgical Consideration,” and “Racial Disparities in Transcatheter and Surgical Aortic Valve Replacement Among Medicare Beneficiaries in the United States.” 

Also of note, Jon Kobashigawa, MD, director of Advanced Heart Disease, was named the 2022 Laennec Clinician Educator Lecturer. The prestigious lecture intends to promote the importance of bedside manner in heart care and the application of clinical research to the bedside. Kobashigawa, the DSL/Thomas D. Gordon Chair in Heart Transplantation Medicine at Cedars-Sinai, will present a session on Nov. 5 at 9:30 a.m. CST titled “Clinical Research Arising from Work in the Trenches.”

Nestor Gonzalez, MD, MSc, was selected to give the Stroke Council Award and Lecture, which recognizes and encourages those who actively work to integrate stroke and heart disease in clinical care, education or research. Gonzalez, a professor of Neurosurgery and director of the Neurovascular Laboratory at Cedars-Sinai, is the first surgeon elected to receive the prestigious award. His session presentation, “Holding Anticoagulation After Hemorrhagic Stroke in Patients with High Risk for Ischemic Stroke. How Much is Enough? Advocating Late Re-initiation” is scheduled for Nov. 5 at 3:12 p.m. CST. 

Other notable Smidt Heart Institute faculty presentations include: 

•  Pedro Catarino, MD, director of Aortic Surgery at Cedars-Sinai, will serve as a panelist on a late-breaking session discussing the use of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, or ECMO.
•  Sumeet Chugh, MD, director of the Center for Cardiac Arrest Prevention and the Pauline and Harold Price Chair in Cardiac Electrophysiology Research, will present a session titled, “Survival From Sudden Cardiac Arrest During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Two-Year Prospective Evaluation in a Large US Community.” 
• Raj Makkar, MD, Cedars-Sinai’s vice president of Cardiovascular Innovation and Intervention and the Stephen R. Corday, MD, Chair in Interventional Cardiology, will present a session titled, “A Predictive Model of Iliofemoral Vascular Complications Following Transfemoral Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement.” 
• Aakriti Gupta, MD, an interventional cardiologist at Cedars-Sinai, is participating in the Samuel A. Levine Early Career Clinical Investigator Award Competition, presenting a session titled, “Racial Disparities in Transcatheter and Surgical Aortic Valve Replacement Among Medicare Beneficiaries in the United States, 2012-2019.”
• Natalie Ann Bello, MD, MPH, director of Hypertension Research in the Smidt Heart Institute, will present a session titled “Trends in Hypertensive Disorders of Pregnancy Among Nulliparous Individuals With Singleton Live Births in the United States: An Age-period-cohort Analysis Between 1995-2019.” She will also present alongside Noel Bairey Merz, MD, director of the Barbra Streisand Women's Heart Center and professor of Cardiology, on a session titled, “A Mediterranean Diet Pattern Is Associated With Lower Risk Of Adverse Pregnancy Outcomes In US Women: Results From The NuMoM2b Cohort.” 

Follow the meeting live on Twitter using the hashtag #AHA22 and follow Cedars-Sinai on Twitter at @CedarsSinaiMed.