The 10 Most Highly Regarded Heart Doctors in the US

The best sources for finding a great heart doctor are reputable magazines and their accompanying sites like U.S. News and World Report https://health.usnews.com/ or the Research Now Group https://www.dynata.com/. But to find a great doctor for yourself, the best practices are to ask friends and family, read your local paper’s Top 10 lists every year, and go to your state board. Do some preliminary searches and see who is active in their field, who does research, who pops us in the media.

Finding a great cardiologist

List of renowned U.S. cardiologists

I thought I’d put together a list of renowned cardiologists around the country that would show the diversity of specialties. All the cardiologists are considered in the top 1% of their field AND also associated with top-ranking hospitals. In alphabetical order:

1. Dr. Thomas Bashore, of Duke University Medical Center, is a respected cardiovascular disease specialist, who has published many studies on this topic. For more info: https://medicine.duke.edu/profile/thomas-michael-bashore
2. Dr. Raymond Gibbons, of Mayo Clinic, specializes in heart attacks. He is widely published and known for his research on ACHD (adult congenital heart disease). He was also the President of the American Heart Association from 2006–2007. Here he is on the controversial topic of government and health care: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syHWI_RvP4Y
3. Dr. Nieca Goldberg, of NYU Langone Medical Center, is a specialist in women’s heart health. She is considered a pioneer in this field and is the author of several acclaimed books. https://www.espeakers.com/marketplace/speaker/profile/8252/Dr-Nieca-Goldberg
   For more information:https://nyulangone.org/doctors/1912084062/nieca-goldberg
   Here she is speaking about heart Health: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQSuPOKEgnQ
4. Dr. Jonathan Halperin, of Mount Sinai Medical Center, specializes in atrial fibrillation. He has an impressive bio as you can see on his professional page, https://profiles.mountsinai.org/jonathan-l-halperin , and wrote a classic of the field, Bypass. Dr. Halperin published extensively and has conducted a lot of clinical investigation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_L._Halperin
5. Dr. Steven Nissen is at #1 rated Cleveland Clinic in this field, is incredibly accomplished, and also outspoken and media savvy, a member of his field. He has written 350 journal articles and contributed to 60 book chapters.https://my.clevelandclinic.org/staff/1185-steven-nissen
   Here is the tackling healthcare reform: https://www.democracynow.org/2012/1/23/medical_whistleblower_dr_steven_nissen_on_escape
   He is also leading in new areas of research to end heart disease:https://www.cleveland.com/healthfit/2009/06/cleveland_clinics_dr_steven_ni.html
6. Dr. William O’Neill is the director of the Center for Structural Heart Disease at Henry Ford Hospital. His focus is on the structural defects of adults, and the Center is a brand new way of looking at patient treatment. Read more here:https://www.henryford.com/physician-directory/o/oneill-william https://www.henryford.com/news/2021/02/oneill-gift-hvi https://www.forbes.com/sites/larryhusten/2012/05/14/returning-to-detroit-william-oneill-heads-to-henry-ford-hospital/
7. Dr. Stuart Russell, of Johns Hopkins Hospital, specializes in heart failure and transplant medicine and he teaches on this important and devastating topic.
   https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/search/?site=hopkinsmedicine_collection&start=0&sort=date%253AD%253AS%253Ad1&client=hopkinsmedicine_frontend&sn=0&q=stuart+russell
   This New York Times article is a great piece about things everyone with heart failure ought to know:https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/06/health/heart-failure-hospice.html
8. Dr. Joseph Tenenbaum is the Chief of Medicine of NY Presbyterian University Hospital and is also a full-time Professor of Clinical Medicine at Columbia University. One of his major goals for the hospital is for it to be a world-class Division of Geriatric Medicine. Most recently, he was the doctor for former NYC Mayor Ed Koch https://doctors.nyp.org/joseph-tenenbaum-md/cuimc-milstein-hospital-building
   Watch this television spot about why he became a doctor: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfPTE7TBDhw
9. Dr. Jonathan Tobias, of Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, is also the Director of The UCLA Interventional Cardiology Program. His primary research has been in angioplasty and imaging. https://www.uclahealth.org/providers/jonathan-tobis
10. Dr. Gary Webb of Cincinnati Children’s Hospital is both a distinguished Professor at the UC Dept. of Pediatrics but has done much research on children’s congenital heart disease. https://health.usnews.com/doctors/gary-webb-24268

Dr. Eugene Braunwald

I didn’t include him on the list of doctors above, because he is a category all his own. Dr. Eugene Braunwald is inspiring and someone worth reading about, and his life story includes escaping the Nazis in Austria. Braunwald is considered the father of modern cardiology. He is a cardiologist from Harvard who has 1,000 publications in journals. His textbook is one of the primary texts used in medical school, *Braunwald’s Heart Disease*, and Nobel Prize laureates named him, “the person who has contributed the most to cardiology in recent years.” He is also the first cardiologist elected to the National Academy of Sciences of the United States.

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_Braunwald
• Great interviews: https://123sonography.com/blog/interview-eugene-braunwald
• https://www.medpagetoday.com/opinion/conversationswith/23636