Featured Cardiologists, Part 1

The serious business of caring for patients leads some cardiologists to take a deeper look at the system that provides the care and the government’s changing role in that system. See the cardiologists featured below and other cardiologists making an impact in social media, elsewhere on the Web, and in their communities in our Top Cardiologists profiles.

1. @doctorwes Westby Fisher, MD, is an internist and cardiologist who specializes in heart rhythm disorders and practices at NorthShore University HealthSystem in Evanston, Illinois. He is also a clinical associate professor of medicine at the University of Chicago. He entered the blogosphere in 2005 and posts extensive “musings” about the medical world as well as active exchanges with readers.


2. @drjohnm John Mandrola, MD, is a cardiac electrophysiologist (heart rhythm specialist) in Louisville, Kentucky, with 17 years’ experience in cardiac device implantation and management. A cyclist, he is a member of Papa John’s bike racing team and an “advocate for healthy living through exercise and good choices.” He’s an active participant in social media and the “medical blogosphere,” and his well-written blog, DrJohnM.org, features from-the-heart “observations, lessons learned, and reflections” on the world of health care and healthy living.


3. @hmkyale Harlan Krumholz, MD, is a professor of medicine (cardiology), investigative medicine, and public health at Yale University and the director of the school’s Clinical Scholars Program. He is also director of the Yale-New Haven Hospital Center for Outcomes Research and Evaluation, and a member of many national committees focused on quality-of-care issues. He was lead author of a study published in JAMA in June 2010 that found that although more heart patients are surviving, more are being readmitted to the hospital or discharged to a skilled nursing facility.


4. @LouHeartDoc Jesse Adams III, MD, is a cardiologist at the Medical Center Cardiologists in Louisville, Kentucky. He completed both his residency (1990) and fellowship (1995) in cardiology at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. He’s involved with many organizations and societies, and he tweets about articles on healthy food and lifestyles as well as news related to health care.


5. @hartdoctor Stephen L. Sigal, MD, “fixes broken hearts” as a cardiologist at the Sigal Heart Center in Tyler, Texas, and is also a physician practice management consultant. He regularly tweets updates to his Hartdoctor’s Doc Daily and Hartdoctor’s Nurses Daily newsletters, with many links to articles on health care topics. Dr Sigal is well recognized as a physician voice in healthcare issues. See his HartDoctor blog for excellent posts spanning current healthcare delivery, healthcare reform, and health 2.0.


6. @ethanjweiss Ethan Weiss, MD, specializes in both acute care and general cardiology and coronary artery disease, an area that’s also the subject of his research. He’s an assistant professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, as well as a “freakish SF Giants fan, father of two crazed little girls, and married to a spectacular interior designer.”


7. @EricTopol Eric Topol, MD, is director of Scripps Translational Science Institute, which translates clinical research in cardiology to daily practice, and is a senior consultant cardiologist at Scripps Clinic. An innovator in wireless medicine, he serves on the scientific advisory board of CardioNet, which offers continuous ECG monitoring via wireless technology, and serves on the board of the West Wireless Health Institute, dedicated to wireless health solutions. His work in the genomics of heart attack led to discoveries that were recognized as American Heart Association Top 10 research advances in 2002 and 2004. If you’re a medical professional, you’ll find his blog postings and videos especially informative.


8. @systemMD Deane Waldman, MD, MBA, spent 45 years as a pediatric cardiologist, serving in both private and academic settings. His time on national committees and as chief of pediatric cardiology enabled him to “observe the administrative machinery up close and personal.” A researcher and author of more than 100 published works, he calls the health care industry his “sickest patient” and says his blog, Medical Malprocess, is “aimed at starting a national conversation that will lead to a process to cure healthcare.”


9. @raxwal Vinod Raxwal, MD, is an interventional cardiologist at a hospital in the Tampa, Florida, area. He posts PowerPoint slides on medical topics of interest to professionals at Slideworld.


10. @jamesbeckerman James Beckerman, MD, is a cardiologist with the Providence Heart and Vascular Institute in Portland, Oregon. He serves on the Oregon Governor’s Council on Physical Fitness and is the cardiologist for Portland’s Major League Soccer team. He is an expert on WebMD and is author of The Flex Diet. He has a few video postings at his blog, and you can ask him a question at his Web site, TheFlexDiet.com.


11. @DrRich1 Richard Fogoros, MD, is a former professor of medicine and longtime practitioner, researcher, and author in the fields of cardiology and cardiac electrophysiology. He is now a consultant in research and development with biomedical companies and a writer with a blog titled “The Covert Rationing Blog: Healthcare Rationing in America” and another at About.com. He wrote Fixing American Healthcare and has a detailed Web site, GutHealthCare.com, that explores the “Grand Unification Theory” as it relates to the health care system in depth.


12. @drportnay Ted Portnay, MD, is a partner at Cardiology Associates of Fairfield County (Conn.) and director of the Cardiac Cath Lab at Stamford Hospital, specializing in diagnosing and treating blockages in the heart and leg arteries. In his blog, he offers news and opinion on heart disease, overall cardiovascular health, exercise, and nutrition. “Every year, I read the AHA’s Heart and Stroke stats with one eye closed,” he writes. “I read wanting justification that my hard work is paying off. Yet, I am consistently humbled by how much work needs to be done.” 

If you know of cardiologists who are worthy of attention on these pages, please use our contact form to let us know. See How to Become an OrganizedWisdom Expert Curator and Curator Benefits.

Other blog entries featuring health professionals or patient experts:

Featured Obstetrician-Gynecologists, Part 1
Featured Chiropractors, Part 1
Featured Neurologists, Part 1
Featured Cardiologists, Part 1, Part 2
Featured Dietitians, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5
Featured Nutritionists, Part 1, Part 2
Featured Nurses, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6
Featured Nurses, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10, Part 11
Featured Oncologists, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
Top Nephrologists on Twitter
Top Gastroenterologists on Twitter 
Gluten-Free Diet Feature 
Type 1 Diabetes Patient Experts, Part 1, Part 2 

By Julie Bohlen, MBA-HCM, ELS