A world-renowned group of cardiologists specializing in interventional cardiology joined the faculty at Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) this past summer. The team will launch an expanded program in Cardiovascular Interventional Therapy (CIVT).
The combined research and clinical program is expected to spur medical and technological discoveries that could greatly improve the lives of patients with heart disease. The CIVT group had been associated with Lenox Hill Hospital, where they broke new ground in minimally invasive cardiac procedures, including angioplasty to open blocked arteries, atherectomy to remove calcified plaque in the arteries, and the use of stents to keep open an area of blockage. Their work led to advances that enable early diagnosis and treatment of cardiac and vascular disease. Their discoveries have allowed patients with serious heart disease worldwide to be treated without surgery or lengthy hospital stays.
The program’s leadership team includes Jeffrey Moses, MD, director of CIVT; Martin Leon, MD, associate director of CIVT; Gregg Stone, MD, director of research and education for CIVT; and Victor Yick, president of the Cardiovascular Research Foundation (CRF), a nonprofit group founded in 1990 by Leon that conducts cardiovascular clinical trials.
Moses has conducted more than 12,000 angioplasties and cardiac interventions. He has also had a major leadership role in clinical studies that demonstrated the effectiveness and safety of drug-coated coronary stent placement. Leon and Stone will lead the group’s research activities.
The interventional cardiologists will have the opportunity to participate in government-funded large-scale clinical trials and collaborate on cross-disciplinary studies involving cell therapy, human genetics, and drug development at Columbia.
As part of CUMC’s faculty, the group will help educate leading specialists in an important area of medicine that can improve patient care and early diagnosis of diseases that are among the most common causes of death in the industrialized world.
