Newswise — Dr. William Zoghbi, the William Winters Endowed Chair in Cardiovascular Imaging at The Methodist Hospital, was named vice president of the American College of Cardiology (ACC) today. His term will go into effect in March of 2010, and he is slated to become president of the ACC in 2012.
Founded in 1949, the ACC now boasts 37,000 members in the U.S. and around the world. It is the guiding force in the cardiology community for education, research, and setting quality and practice standards. All specialties are represented by the organization, from adult cardiologists to pediatric cardiologists, cardiovascular surgeons, researchers and academicians.
“It is an honor to have physicians of Dr. Zoghbi’s quality practice and serve patients at The Methodist Hospital,” said Ron Girotto, president and CEO of The Methodist Hospital System in Houston. “Bill is an extraordinary person and exceptional leader in every sense of the word. I’m sure his vision and wise counsel will be very beneficial in this role with the ACC.”
Zoghbi is a leader in the field of echocardiography and Doppler ultrasound for heart disease. He has developed new techniques to evaluate valvular disorders and cardiac function. Studies in Zoghbi’s laboratory improved the non-invasive evaluation of diastolic function with Doppler and refined the use of stress and contrast echocardiography for detection of ischemic heart disease. Zoghbi is also known for his research on myocardial hibernation and his development of 3D Doppler techniques to measure valvular regurgitation.
“Zoghbi’s work has improved our ability to diagnose and treat heart disease in a fundamental way,” said Dr. Alan Lumsden, medical director of the Methodist DeBakey Heart & Vascular Center and chair of the department of cardiovascular surgery at The Methodist Hospital. “His research and his leadership have been invaluable.”
Zoghbi has authored more than 200 original publications in the field of cardiovascular imaging and has been invited to lecture on his work at every major cardiology conference. He chaired the development of national guidelines for evaluating native and artificial heart valves with cardiac ultrasound, and he co-chaired the ACC committee that wrote a monograph on how to best to train the new generation of cardiologists in cardiovascular imaging.
Dr. Zoghbi received his B.S. in biology and chemistry from the American University of Beirut. He trained in internal medicine and cardiology at Baylor College of Medicine, joining the faculty in 1985. During his tenure at Baylor, he was the John S. Dunn Professor of Medicine and served as director of the echocardiography laboratory and echocardiography research at The Methodist Hospital.
In 2005, Zoghbi was appointed director of the Cardiovascular Imaging Institute and received the William L. Winters Endowed Chair in Cardiovascular Imaging at the Methodist DeBakey Heart & Vascular Center.
Zoghbi has been actively involved with the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association for more than two decades. Zoghbi has served as chair of the ACC Annual Scientific Sessions, served on the ACC board of trustees and was until recently the treasurer of the ACC. He has also exerted considerable influence in recent years in the American Society of Echocardiography (ASE) through many educational endeavors, committees and leadership roles, including his recent tenure as ASE president. He has served on the board of directors of the ASE and chaired the Annual Scientific Sessions in 2005. Zoghbi has served on the editorial board of many medical journals including The Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC). He was associate editor of Circulation, and is currently associate editor of the new JACC-Cardiovascular Imaging.
For more information about the Methodist DeBakey Heart & Vascular Center, see www.debakeyheartcenter.com. Follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/MethodistHosp and Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/methodisthospital.
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