John S. Rumsfeld (born June 16, 1964) is an American cardiologist. He is the Chief Innovation Officer for the American College of Cardiology, and Professor of Medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. He was previously the National Director of Cardiology for the U.S. Veterans Health Administration. Rumsfeld was named as Chief Innovation Officer for American College of Cardiology in 2015. [1]
Rumsfeld received his undergraduate degree in biology in 1986 from the University of California, Los Angeles, and his medical degree in 1991 from the University of Chicago. He completed internal medicine internship and residency at the University of California, San Francisco (1991–1994), and did a cardiology fellowship at the University of Colorado (1995–1999), where he received a doctoral degree in Epidemiology in 1999. He has been a staff cardiologist in the VA Eastern Colorado Healthcare System and a faculty member of the Division of Cardiology, University of Colorado, since 1999. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 1994 and to Professor in 2009.
Starting in 2004, he led the development and implementation of the VA’s Clinical Assessment Reporting and Tracking (CART) Program. He continues to serve as National Director for the program, which involves all 76 VA Medical Centers that do cardiac catheterization procedures [ citation needed ]
In 2005, he was named the Chief Science Officer for the American College of Cardiology’s National Cardiovascular Data Registry (NCDR) Program. He is also the current Chair of the NCDR Management Board. He is a member of the American College of Cardiology Board of Trustees, and is the current Chair of the American Heart Association’s Quality of Care and Outcomes Research Council.
Rumsfeld is an Associate Editor for the journal Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes [2] and is on the Editorial Board for the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. He is a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology, American Heart Association, and American College of Physicians.
In 2010, he was appointed Acting National Director of Cardiology for the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, and confirmed as director in 2011. He was a founding member of the national Cardiovascular Outcomes Research Consortium and the Colorado Cardiovascular Outcomes Research (C-COR) consortium, which includes the University of Colorado Denver Health and Hospitals, VA Eastern Colorado Healthcare System, and Kaiser Colorado. He served on the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) Cardiovascular Outcomes Research Workgroup.
Rumsfeld’s doctoral thesis and early cardiovascular outcomes research work principally focused on the measurement and predictors of patient health status outcomes, including patient symptom burden from disease, mental and physical functional status, and health-related quality of life. [1]
He has had a long-standing research and clinical interest in the intersection of cardiovascular disease and depression. He has published a number of studies – and spoken nationally and internationally – on the topic. In recent years, his research has focussed on the effectiveness and safety of cardiovascular care delivery and therapeutics, building on his work with the ACC NCDR programs and national clinical quality programs in the VA.
Dr. Rumsfeld has more than 200 scientific publications, including original research, editorials, and scientific statements.
Coronary artery disease (CAD), also called coronary heart disease (CHD), ischemic heart disease (IHD), myocardial ischemia, or simply heart disease, involves the reduction of blood flow to the heart muscle due to build-up of atherosclerotic plaque in the arteries of the heart. It is the most common of the cardiovascular diseases. Types include stable angina, unstable angina, and myocardial infarction. A common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which may travel into the shoulder, arm, back, neck, or jaw. Occasionally it may feel like heartburn. Usually symptoms occur with exercise or emotional stress, last less than a few minutes, and improve with rest. Shortness of breath may also occur and sometimes no symptoms are present. In many cases, the first sign is a heart attack. Other complications include heart failure or an abnormal heartbeat.
The American College of Cardiology (ACC), based in Washington, D.C., is a nonprofit medical association established in 1949. It bestows credentials upon cardiovascular specialists who meet its qualifications. Education is a core component of the college, which is also active in the formulation of health policy and the support of cardiovascular research.
A ventricular assist device (VAD) is an electromechanical device that provides support for cardiac circulation, which is used either to partially or to completely replace the function of a failing heart. VADs can be used in patients with acute (sudden onset) or chronic (long standing) heart failure, which can occur due to a variety of reasons (e.g. coronary artery disease, atrial fibrillation, valvular disease, and so forth).
Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) is a minimally invasive non-surgical procedure used to treat narrowing of the coronary arteries of the heart found in coronary artery disease. The procedure is used to place and deploy coronary stents, a permanent wire-meshed tube, to open narrowed coronary arteries. PCI is considered 'non-surgical' as it uses a small hole in a peripheral artery (leg/arm) to gain access to the arterial system, an equivalent surgical procedure would involve the opening of the chest wall to gain access to the heart area. The term 'coronary angioplasty with stent' is synonymous with PCI. The procedure visualises the blood vessels via fluoroscopic imaging and contrast dyes. PCI is performed by an interventional cardiologists in a catheterization laboratory setting.

Circulation is a scientific journal published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins for the American Heart Association. The journal publishes articles related to research in and the practice of cardiovascular diseases, including observational studies, clinical trials, epidemiology, health services and outcomes studies, and advances in applied (translational) and basic research. Its 2021 impact factor is 39.918, ranking it first among journals in the Cardiac and Cardiovascular Systems category and first in the Peripheral Vascular Disease category. Articles become open access after a 12-month embargo period.
A drug-eluting stent (DES) is a thin tube that is used to treat narrowed arteries in medical procedures. It releases drugs to prevent the growth of scar tissue and reduce the risk of stent restenosis, which is the narrowing of the stented area of an artery after treatment. A drug-eluting stent is different from other types of stents because it has a coating that delivers medication directly to the arterial wall. A DES is often made of metal alloys and can be inserted into blocked or narrowed arteries through a catheter placed in a peripheral artery, such as in the arm or leg. DES is fully integrated with a catheter delivery system and is viewed as one integrated medical device.
The history of invasive and interventional cardiology is complex, with multiple groups working independently on similar technologies. Invasive and interventional cardiology is currently closely associated with cardiologists, though the development and most of its early research and procedures were performed by diagnostic and interventional radiologists.
Avijit Lahiri is a researcher in cardiology in the UK.
Cardiac rehabilitation (CR) is defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as "the sum of activity and interventions required to ensure the best possible physical, mental, and social conditions so that patients with chronic or post-acute cardiovascular disease may, by their own efforts, preserve or resume their proper place in society and lead an active life". CR is a comprehensive model of care delivering established core components, including structured exercise, patient education, psychosocial counselling, risk factor reduction and behaviour modification, with a goal of optimizing patient's quality of life and reducing the risk of future heart problems.
Valentín Fuster Carulla, 1st Marquess of Fuster is a Spanish cardiologist and aristocrat.
A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops in one of the coronary arteries of the heart, causing infarction to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which may travel into the shoulder, arm, back, neck or jaw. Often such pain occurs in the center or left side of the chest and lasts for more than a few minutes. The discomfort may occasionally feel like heartburn. Other symptoms may include shortness of breath, nausea, feeling faint, a cold sweat, feeling tired, and decreased level of consciousness. About 30% of people have atypical symptoms. Women more often present without chest pain and instead have neck pain, arm pain or feel tired. Among those over 75 years old, about 5% have had an MI with little or no history of symptoms. An MI may cause heart failure, an irregular heartbeat, cardiogenic shock or cardiac arrest.
Francis Miller Fesmire was an American emergency physician and a nationally recognized expert in myocardial infarction. He authored numerous academic articles and assisted in the development of clinical guidelines on the standard of care in treating patients with suspected myocardial infarction by the American College of Emergency Physicians and the American Heart Association/American College of Cardiology. He performed numerous research investigations in chest pain patients, reporting the usefulness of continuous 12-lead ECG monitoring, two-hour delta cardiac marker testing, and nuclear cardiac stress testing in the emergency department. The culmination of his studies was The Erlanger Chest Pain Evaluation Protocol published in the Annals of Emergency Medicine in 2002. In 2011 he published a novel Nashville Skyline that received a 5 star review by ForeWord Reviews. His most recent research involved the risk stratification of chest pain patients in the emergency department.
Frederick A. Masoudi is an American cardiologist with expertise in cardiovascular outcomes research, clinical registries and quality measurement.
Ischemic cardiomyopathy is a type of cardiomyopathy caused by a narrowing of the coronary arteries which supply blood to the heart. Typically, patients with ischemic cardiomyopathy have a history of acute myocardial infarction, however, it may occur in patients with coronary artery disease, but without a past history of acute myocardial infarction. This cardiomyopathy is one of the leading causes of sudden cardiac death. The adjective ischemic means characteristic of, or accompanied by, ischemia — local anemia due to mechanical obstruction of the blood supply.
Prof. Aly Saad, is a professor of cardiology at Zagazig University and a Member of higher committee of promotion of professors and Assistant professors of cardiovascular diseases and Critical care Subspecialty in Egypt.
The Mid America Heart Institute (MAHI) is located in Kansas City, Missouri and is one of the first and largest hospitals developed and designed specifically for cardiovascular care. It is a subsidiary of the not-for-profit Saint Luke's Hospital of Kansas City and is a part of Saint Luke's Health System. The Heart Institute is affiliated with the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine and has earned the certification as a Comprehensive Cardiac Center from the Joint Commission.
George "Rick" Stouffer is an American cardiologist who is Chief of the Division of Cardiology at the University of North Carolina Medical Center, where he is a practicing interventional cardiologist. Stouffer was awarded the Ernest and Hazel Craige Distinguished Professorship of Medicine in 2018; prior to that he was the Henry A. Foscue Distinguished Professor of Medicine. Stouffer is also co-director of the McAllister Heart Institute. He is known for his research regarding inpatient ST elevation myocardial infarctions.
Harlan M. Krumholz, MD, SM is an American cardiologist, leading research scientist, and the Harold H. Hines, Jr. Professor of Medicine at Yale School of Medicine, where he has been on faculty since 1992. A pioneer in the development of the field of outcomes research, his groundbreaking contributions to science have directly led to improvements in healthcare outcomes for patients and populations. He is an international expert in the science to evaluate and improve the quality and efficiency of care, reduce disparities, improve integrity in medical research, promote better health policies and regulations, and promote patient-centeredness in research and clinical care. He is the founder and director of the Yale New Haven Hospital Center for Outcomes Research and Evaluation.
Renee Yuen-Jan Hsia is an American emergency physician. She is a professor of Emergency Medicine and Associate Chair of Health Services Research at the University of California, San Francisco, as well as an attending physician in the emergency department at the Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center. She is also a core faculty member of the UCSF Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies. Her research is aimed at studying how health services and regionalization of care impact access to emergency care.
Roberto Ferrari is an Italian cardiologist who holds the position of Emeritus Professor at the University of Ferrara, where besides he was the chair of the Cardiology in the School of Medicine until the 2019–2020 academic year.