Douglas M. Burtt, MD

Dr. Burtt is an Assistant Professor of Medicine, Brown University School of Medicine. He is a full-time physician in the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory at The Miriam Hospital, performing both diagnostic catheterization and interventional procedures, and is Director of the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory at Roger Williams Medical Center. Dr. Burtt is the Director of the Cardiac Pathophysiology Course at Brown University Medical School, and spends several months per year as a Clinical Attending on the Cardiology service.

Dr. Anthony Cannistra is an Assistant Professor of Medicine, Brown University School of Medicine and Director of the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory at Memorial Hospital of Rhode Island where he is also clinically active on both CCU and consultant rotations. In addition, he is an interventional cardiologist performing coronary angioplasty procedures at The Miriam Hospital. His recent research activities have involved the histopathological assessment of tissue specimens obtained from atherosclerotic lesions during directional coronary atherectomy. In addition, he is also interested in the study of cardiovascular hemodynamics during cardiac catheterization.

Dr. Lauralyn Cannistra is an Assistant Professor of Medicine, Brown University School of Medicine and Director of the Echocardiography Laboratory at Memorial Hospital of Rhode Island. She is active in fellow teaching during their echocardiography and CCU/consult rotations. Her echocardiography research interests involve left ventricular remodeling. She is also interested in the study of risk factor modification and secondary prevention through cardiac rehabilitation programs. Current projects include examining the effects of exercise on left ventricular remodeling after myocardial infarction.

Dr. Carleton, Professor of Medicine, Brown University School of Medicine, has been involved in education and research in cardiovascular diseases for more than thirty years. His excellence as an educator is attested by prior Honors received from the University of Illinois, San Diego, Dartmouth, and Brown. In 1989 he received the Governor's Award for Science and Technology from the State of Rhode Island. In 1992, he received the "Best Teacher" award from our fellows in recognition of his expertise. Dr. Carleton, in 1993, received the Gold Heart Award from the American Heart Association at its annual meeting in Kansas City.

Dr. Carleton's research in earlier years involved extensive studies in hemodynamics of valvular and congenital heart disease. In more recent years, the dominant theme of his research has involved a multidisciplinary team of investigators in epidemiologic and behavioral change research necessary for Preventive Cardiology. He serves as a Principal Investigator of a federally funded research grant known as the Pawtucket Heart Health Program. This program has sought to test the hypothesis that risk factor change is feasible in an entire population through a process of community activation and community education. This research involves many ancillary projects in which fellows are welcome to participate. Many extensive data bases are available for these analyses.

Related research activity includes efforts to bring health promoting nutrition and cholesterol change into places of employment using a diversity of strategies. Other research interests involve cardiac rehabilitation, human exercise physiology, and clinical pharmacology of patients with ischemic heart disease.

Dr. Carleton and his colleagues were successful applicants to be one of the Vanguard Clinical Centers of the federally funded Women's Health Initiative. This clinical trial and observational study of 163,000 women nationally will, upon its completion, set the tone for preventive medicine in women's illnesses for decades to come.

Dr. Elion is an Associate Professor of Medicine, Brown University School of Medicine, Director of Cardiac Image Processing at The Miriam Hospital, and Director of Brown University's Institute for Medical Computing. His research interests include computer applications in cardiac image processing, and developing new image archive and review technology for digital angiography.

Dr. Forman, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Brown University School of Medicine, is Co-Director of the Heart Station and Medical Director of the Cardiac Rehabilitation Program. His areas of expertise include echocardiography and exercise physiology. His research interests include pathophysiologic changes associated with cardiovascular aging, diagnosis and management strategies for cardiovascular disease in the elderly (particularly CAD, CHF and atrial fibrillation), and the effects of exercise in modifying aging processes.

Dr. Gordon is an Assistant Professor of Medicine, Brown University School of Medicine. He is a full-time physician in the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratories at The Miriam Hospital, performing diagnostic catheterizations and coronary angioplasties. He spends several months per year as a clinical Attending on the ward and consult service, and is active in teaching of fellows, investigating new devices for coronary intervention (stents, atherectomy), and the analysis of restenosis following coronary intervention.

Dr. Gutman is a recent graduate of the Combined Program in Cardiovascular Diseases Fellowship Program and has joined the faculty as a staff cardiologist. He is active in teaching all levels from medical students to fellow. Through the Department of Medicine, Dr. Gutman is working on integrating general cardiology into the realm of primary care. In addition to traditional cardiology, he is interested in pediatric and adult congenital heart disease.

Dr. Katz is an Assistant Professor of Medicine, Brown University School of Medicine and the Director of the Doppler Echocardiography Laboratory at The Miriam Hospital. He is also director of the laboratory in Human Cardiovascular Physiology for first year medical students at Brown University. In addition to teaching on the cardiology consult service, Dr. Katz instructs fellows in the performance and interpretation of transthoracic echoes, transesophageal echoes, and stress echoes. His primary research interests are digital image processing in echocardiography and echo in acute myocardial infarction.

Dr. Khan is an Associate Professor in Medicine, Brown University School of Medicine. He is the interim chief of cardiology at the Memorial Hospital of Rhode Island. He was a principal investigator at Memorial Hospital of Rhode Island for several recent trials including the Cardiac Arrhythmia Suppression Trial (CAST), the International Study for Infarct Survival (ISIS 4), and Global Utilization of Thrombolytics for Occluded Arteries (GUSTO), as well as the ongoing NHLBI Digitalis in Heart Failure (DIG) Study, and GUSTO IIb (comparing heparin and hirudin in coronary artery disease syndromes). Dr. Khan participates in clinical and echocardiographic teaching. He participates in the cardiovascular pathophysiology and pharmacology courses for Brown University medical students and also directs the Continuing Medical Education Program at Memorial Hospital. Dr. Khan, in his role as Director of Clinical Cardiovascular Pharmacology at Memorial Hospital of RI, both teaches and encourages research by fellows. His primary research interests include pharmacologic management of heart failure, thrombolysis, and cardiac arrhythmias.

Dr. Korr is an Associate Professor of Medicine, Brown University School of Medicine and the Director of the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory at The Miriam Hospital. He is also co-director of the Cardiovascular Pathophysiology Section of the second year medical students course in Integrated Medical Sciences (on the Brown University campus), and is the Director of the Adult Clinical Cardiology elective at The Miriam Hospital.

Dr. Korr is an invasive and interventional cardiologist active in the performance of cardiac catheterization, balloon coronary angioplasty, and other interventional procedures. He is responsible for supervising the training of fellows in invasive cardiology. In addition, Dr. Korr supervises a separate training program in interventional cardiology which each year accepts two fourth year fellows for advanced training.

Dr. Korr's research interests relate to interventional cardiology and imaging techniques within the cardiac catheterization laboratory. He is also active in a variety of clinical research projects with other members of the Divisions of Cardiology and Behavioral Medicine.

Dr. Leavitt is an Assistant Professor of Medicine, Brown University School of Medicine and Director of the Coronary Care Unit at Memorial Hospital of Rhode Island. He is actively involved in teaching of fellows, house officers and students during CCU-Consult, Nuclear Cardiology, and Echocardiography rotations. Research interests focus on the application of myocardial perfusion imaging to a variety of clinical settings, including viability assessment, determination of myocardial area-at-risk, and determination of prognosis in patients with coronary artery disease.

Dr. Parisi is Professor of Medicine and Cardiology Division Director of the Brown University Medical School and Chief of the Division of Cardiology at The Miriam Hospital. He is well-known for his research in echocardiography in coronary artery disease as well as for the evaluation of the efficacy of medical and angioplasty intervention for the treatment of coronary artery disease. His other areas of interest include noninvasive and invasive imaging. He is the Medical Co-Chairman of the VA ACME Study (a national multicenter study of angioplasty compared to medical therapy in single vessel CAD) and the American College of Cardiology Governor for the state of Rhode Island. Dr. Parisi is a Past President of the American Society of Echocardiography, Past President of The New England Cardiovascular Society, and former Chairman of the Research Committee of the Rhode Island Affiliate of the American Heart Association. He has served on the VA Merit Review Research Board and is a current member of VA Data Monitoring and Safety Board for the Intervention Trial on high-density lipoproteins (HIT) in men with coronary disease.

Dr. Perdoncin is a Clinical Assistant Professor, Brown University School of Medicine and full-time staff cardiologist at the VA Medical Center. He is a fellow of the American College of Physicians and an associate fellow of the American College of Cardiology. His duties at the VA Medical Center include patient care services, and echocardiographic imaging including biplane transesophageal echocardiography. His research interests include the use of signal average electrocardiography in the detection, diagnosis and prognosis of potentially life-threatening arrhythmias in patients with sleep apnea.

Dr. Sadaniantz is Associate Professor of Medicine, Brown University School of Medicine, as well as Director of the Coronary Care Unit and Associate Director of the Echocardiography Laboratory at The Miriam Hospital. He conducts daily teaching rounds in CCU with medical residents and cardiology fellows, and reviews CCU EKG's with cardiology fellows daily. His research interests include the use of Doppler echocardiography in diastology, heart function in pregnancy, and multicenter clinical trials evaluating new therapies in coronary artery disease.

Dr. Sharma is Chief of Cardiology at the VA Medical Center and an Associate Professor of Medicine at the Brown University School of Medicine. He is a respected clinician and teacher whose style of teaching emphasizes bedside clinical cardiology. Dr. Sharma received the coveted "Best Teacher" Award from the fellows in 1994 in recognition of his teaching.

Dr. Sharma's research interests relate to the evaluation of the efficacy and safety of clinical pharmacologic interventions in the treatment of congestive heart failure and ischemic heart disease. Several multicenter clinical trials evaluating new therapies in CHF and angina are currently in progress. Dr. Sharma is also the principal investigator for a VA Cooperative Study which compares the effects of Warfarin plus aspirin versus aspirin alone in secondary prevention post-myocardial infarction. A second multi-center study (ALLHAT) sponsored by NIH/VA, compares the efficacy and safety of the different classes of antihypertensive and lipid lowering agents for prevention of MI in a large cohort of hypertensive patients.

Dr. Tilkemeier is an Associate Professor of Medicine, Brown University School of Medicine and Program Director of the Fellowship. He also is the Director of Nuclear Cardiology at The Miriam Hospital. This includes patient care services and research in both myocardial perfusion imaging and gated blood pool studies utilizing SPECT technology. He is Chairman of the Research Committee and president-elect of the American Heart Association, RI Affiliate. His research interests include the use of new imaging agents and modalities in the diagnosis and prognosis of ischemic heart disease, as well as predictors of success of cardiac rehabilitation in conjunction with the Behavioral Medicine Department at The Miriam Hospital.

Dr. Torres is an Associate Professor of Medicine at the Brown University School of Medicine and is actively involved in the Lifespan Clinical Electrophysiology Program. She is based at the Miriam Hospital when she participates in the clinical and teaching activities on the clinical services. She participates in several multi-center trials investigating the role of antiarrhythmic drugs and devices.