The Division of Cardiovascular Diseases is nationally and internationally known for its clinical, educational and research programs. The division provides the coronary care, cardiology consultation, electrophysiology, and heart failure and transplantation services at University Hospital, as well as staffing of all invasive and noninvasive hospital laboratories. The division also provides inpatient and outpatient cardiology services at the adjacent Veteran Affairs Medical Center and at the brand new West Chester Medical Center.

Outpatient care is provided through six cardiology office practices, The University Medical Arts Building; The University Pointe office in West Chester, Ohio; The University Hospital Cardiac Clinic; The University Hospital Heart Failure/Transplant Clinic and our University Internal Medicine Associates office in Montgomery.

A major strength of the division is our emphasis on teaching. We have implemented a variety of innovative, interactive programs at the medical student, resident and fellowship levels. These include regularly scheduled teaching conferences in seven different cardiology disciplines, including cardiology grand rounds, and a unique 20-hour cardiovascular core curriculum for incoming postgraduate fellows.

Another divisional strength is our research programs. Members of the Division of Cardiovascular Diseases collaborate with researchers in the Department of Medicine in basic and translational research through a Specialized Centers Of Research (SCOR) grant in heart failure, sponsored by the National Institutes of Health. The SCOR involves researchers from the departments of pharmacology and cell biophysics; molecular and developmental biology; molecular genetics; and biochemistry and microbiology. Basic science research is focused on normal and pathological growth of the heart and vasculature. The program heavily utilizes gene targeted and transgenic mice, animal models of human disease and clinical studies to pursue this problem. The basic research laboratories are consolidated in the Cardiovascular Research and Education Center, a 110,000-square foot building which employs an open laboratory design.

The division also has active clinical research programs in heart failure, invasive cardiology and cardiac imaging. Recently, this has included pioneering studies in the use of fibroblast growth factor in the treatment of ischemic heart disease.