Cardiovascular Institute
One, diverse academic health enterprise where people come to receive the highest quality heart and vascular care in their community while also enabling relentless innovation that fuels better health for Indiana and beyond. Read on to learn about recent advances in realizing this vision.
Connect to Promise
Kudos to IU Health Bloomington for their remarkable, multidisciplinary team effort treating an individual who noticed blood in his urine; a CT scan identified a tumor on his kidney. In the operating room, it was found to be invading a vital vascular structure. Though she was at another facility, Dr. Cuddy's specialized vascular skills were needed - and she responded, arriving in the OR to help within 10 minutes. The patient underwent meticulous removal of the tumor and repair of the blood vessel, and is on his way home. Cheers to the South Central Region for delivering high quality vascular care to patients in their community!
Top News

IU Health Methodist Hospital is proud to be recognized with a GOLD Quality Achievement Award for our achievement in the American Heart Association's Get With the Guidelines AFIB quality program. This award recognizes a select group of hospitals achieving the highest compliance to core standard levels of care as outlined by the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association for 2 consecutive calendar years. For patients with this most common heart rhythm disorder, IU Health's recognition in this quality program assures patients are being treated according to the latest scientific guidelines. Award recipients are publicly recognized on the AHA/ASA website as well as in a US News and World Report recognition add that appears in the "Best Hospital" edition.
Ventricular Assist Device Program Re-Certification

Welcome to our Team
Dr. Cavanaugh chose cardiology because he feels that when heart disease is identified early, it can be modified dramatically and help prevent life threatening events. He believes in providing personalized care to each of his patients. Dr. Cavanaugh strives to make his patients and their families feel comfortable throughout their healthcare journey. In his free time, Cavanaugh enjoys spending time with his wife and two children, cycling, hiking and coaching baseball.
Kudos
Awards
Dr. Georges Ephrem was recently announced as an American College of Cardiology Clinical Trial Research Awardee. The ACC CTR program is intended to grow the next generation of cardiologists doing impactful clinical research by increasing the number of future leaders in cardiovascular clinical trials research. As part of this program, Dr. Ephrem submitted a research proposal entitled "Sacubitril/Valsartan Outcomes in Adult Congenital Heart Disease Patients With a Systemic Right Ventricle" aimed at prospectively studying the impact of Entresto in this subgroup of ACHD patients. The ACC's Research Fellowship Awards Committee (RFAC) reviewed and ranked the submitted proposals according to the NIH criteria and granted Dr. Ephrem the 20,000 USD prize to assist in launching this ambitious research project.
Honors and Recognitions
Richard Kovacs, MD
Richard Kovacs, MD, MACC has worked with the American College of Cardiology to become its inaugural Chief Medical Advisor/Chief Medical Officer. Best wishes to Dr. Kovacs as he transitions 50% of his time to this ACC position effective November 1.
Raghu Motaganahalli, MD, selected as the 44th President of the Midwestern Vascular Surgery Society

Courtland Blount, MD, MS, accepted into the ACC African American Cardiology Program

Mohammed Homsi, MD, Awarded the IUH West Physician Sanctuary Award
Cheers to IUHP Cardiac Electrophysiologist, Dr. Mohammed Homsi, for being awarded the Physician Sanctuary Award at IU Health West Hospital, selected by his physician peers on the medical executive committee. This award is to recognize physicians who emulate the core values of IU Health. Dr. Homsi's attributes of respect, kindness, empathy for others, and knowledge elevate the care to patients in this institution.

In the Media
2021 Health Care Heroes: Recognition of our Team's Support of Heart Transplant Patients' recovery
Read on to learn how the IU Health Center of Life for Thoracic Transplant (COLTT) was awarded the Health Care Hero Award by the Indianapolis Business Journal.

Onyedika Ilonze, MD, Featured in the IU Health Plans Commercial
Cheers to Dr. Onyedika Ilonze for his participation in the IU Health Plans Medicare Advantage commercial. It will air on the following channels: WISH-TV (CW), WRTV-TV (CW), WRTV-TV (CBS), WTHR-TV (NBC), WTTV-S2 (ABC), WXIN-TV (FOX), ESPN, HGTV, and more.
Presentations
Cheers to Dr. Pantila Bateman for her lecture entitled, "Heart Health and COVID-19" at the 2021 Women of INfluence 10th Annual Virtual Symposium by IU National Center of Excellence in Women's Health on September 15th, 2021.
Publications
Dr. Balaji Tamarappoo's manuscript was recently accepted to the Journal of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography. Women with breast cancer are surviving longer thanks to early diagnosis and excellent targeted chemotherapy and radiation. One of the major causes of non-cancer death in these women is cardiovascular disease. Thus, early detection and treatment of coronary artery atherosclerosis has the potential to reduce cardiovascular events in breast cancer survivors. Women with metastatic breast cancer undergo whole body PET-CT for detection of metastases or to monitor effectiveness of treatment. In these women, coronary atherosclerosis can be detected by measuring coronary calcium in the CT scan. In Dr. Tamarappoo's research study, they demonstrated that CT from PET-CT scanning can provide an opportunity to identify women with coronary artery calcium who were previously not diagnosed as having coronary atherosclerosis and hence were not treated with lipid lowering therapies. In this study, in a small cohort of women, they concluded that breast cancer survivors with subclinical atherosclerosis and who were eligible for lipid lowering therapy could be identified using PET-CT that was performed for other clinical indications. Whether early detection of subclinical atherosclerosis in women with breast cancer will result in mortality benefit needs to be tested in multicenter studies in large population of women with breast cancer.
Opportunities within #OneIUCV
- Find your place at the Indiana University School of Medicine with this newly created Program Management Leader opportunity. The Krannert Cardiovascular Research Center (KCVRC) is seeking an experienced Program Management Leader who thrives in a dynamic team environment. This position will provide programmatic support for the KCVRC and will be responsible for the Center's fiscal and operational oversight. To learn more and to apply, visit the IU careers page, browse staff positions and search for keywords: Cardiovascular Research Program Management Leader.
- The KCVRC is also seeking a Postdoctoral Fellow with expertise in physiological data acquisition and analysis. To learn more and to apply, visit the IU Career Page.
Please email OneIUCV@iu.edu so we can share with the team!