Division Highlights Cardiovascular Medicine Cllinical At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, our clinical program transitioned to provide Telehealth care and urgent procedures for those in need. This facilitated an expanded program for international consultation, as well. We quickly built protocols for the safe and efficient provision of care for those in need and addressed many of the misconceptions regarding treatments, such as ACE inhibitors for hypertension, with community programs. Our cardiologists participated in setting national
standards for these activities, such as the treatment of patients with ST elevation myocardial infarction. The Division assembled a Dream Team that designed and oversaw the MIAMI Protocol for evaluation of student and professional athletes who had had COVID-19 to determine if it was safe to return to practice/competition given the risk of post-COVID myocarditis. The team included sports medicine, sports cardiology, cardiac electrophysiologists, and experts in cardiac imaging and myocarditis. The vast majority of athletes evaluated were able to be cleared and returned to their sport
with no adverse consequences. A vascular medicine program has been started via a collaboration between our division and vascular surgery. In collaboration with radiology, our preventive cardiology team identified an important quality improvement initiative – underreporting of coronary calcium on non-coronary chest CT scans. Addressing this will improve treatment for prevention of coronary events.
Research Division faculty has continued to maintain a robust clinical and translational research program. Key UM initiated clinical trials that are in
Cardiology fellows with Cardiology Program Director Carlos Alfonso, M.D.; Interventional Cardiology Program Director Michael Dyal, M.D.; and Division Chief Jeffrey Goldberger, M.D., M.B.A. 18 UHealth|University of Miami Miller School of Medicine
