The Section of Cardiovascular Medicine is pleased to announce the launch of a distinguished lectureship series honoring the Giants of Yale Cardiovascular Medicine. This series will be in collaboration with the Yale New Haven Hospital Heart and Vascular Center (HVC). Giants of Yale Cardiovascular Medicine will recognize six distinguished faculty who have transformed their respective fields.

Further details are too be announced. Named Giants of Yale Cardiovascular Medicine lectureships include:

• Professor Lawrence Cohen Honorary Lecturer (Rescheduled for October 18, 2022)
• Professor Barry Zaret Honorary Lecturer (Tuesday, March 22, 2022)
• Professor Lynda Rosenfeld Honorary Lecturer (Tuesday, June 21, 2022)
• Professor Henry Cabin Honorary Lecturer (TBD)
• Professor Forrester “Woody” Lee Honorary Lecturer (Tuesday, May 23, 2023)
• Professor Michael Cleman Honorary Lecturer (TBD)

“We are thrilled to initiate this long overdue honorary lectureship series and welcome internationally recognized leaders in Cardiovascular Medicine to join us as Visiting Professors as we celebrate the accomplishment of these icons at Yale and in our field,” said Eric J. Velazquez, MD, Robert W. Berliner Professor of Medicine (Cardiology) and section chief.

The lectureship series will begin with Jagat Narula, MD, PhD, presenting on Tuesday, March 22 as the inaugural Professor Barry Zaret Honorary Lecturer. A Professor of Medicine and Philip J. and Harriet L. Goodhart Chair in Cardiology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Narula will present the inaugural Professor Barry Zaret Honorary Lecturer on Tuesday, March 22. Narula is the Director of Cardiovascular Imaging Program in Mount Sinai’s Zena and Michael A. Wiener Cardiovascular Institute and the Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis Center for Cardiovascular Health. He is the Associate Dean for Global Health at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

Narula is the former Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of American College of Cardiology: Cardiovascular Imaging. He is involved in population-based heart attack prevention programs. He has served on the Advisory Council on Global Prevention of Cardiovascular Diseases of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies of Sciences.

He has also been recognized by the American College of Cardiology with the Best Educator award.

James de Lemos, MD, Professor of Cardiology and Sweetheart Ball-Kern Wildenthal, MD, PhD Distinguished Chair in Cardiology at UT Southwestern will deliver the Professor Lawrence Cohen Honorary Lecturer in October (rescheduled from March), and Erin Michos MD, MHS, an associate professor in Division of Cardiology at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, will deliver the Professor Lynda Rosenfeld Honorary Lecturer on Tuesday, June 21.

Heather J. Ross, CM, MD, MHSc, FRCPC, FCCS, FACC, will present the inaugural Professor Forrester “Woody” Lee Honorary Lecturer "Digital Health for Heart Failure" on Tuesday, May 23, 2023. Ross is a renowned cardiologist and the Division Head of Cardiology at the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre at the University of Toronto in Ontario, Canada, and the recipient of the 2020 Women in Cardiovascular Medicine Science Mentorship award from the Canadian Cardiovascular Society. Ross has authored over 450 peer-reviewed publications. Her research interests focus on issues related to end-of-life in patients with advanced heart failure.

A Lifetime of Clinical and Academic Excellence at Yale

Lawrence S. Cohen, MD

As the former section chief in the Section of Cardiovascular Medicine, Lawrence S. Cohen, MD, the Emeritus Ebenezer K. Hunt Professor of Medicine, oversaw the early growth of cardiac catheterization, coronary arteriography and coronary care for patients at Yale New Haven Hospital. He initiated the Yale trials comparing medical cardiac treatment and bypass surgery in patients with stable angina pectoris. He then led the Yale trials of thrombolytics in unstable angina and myocardial infarction and laid the foundation for much of the subsequent clinical trials research in the section.

Cohen, an accomplished teacher, started and for 39 years led the medical student course in cardiac auscultation, “Learning Heart Sounds”. He is a recipient of the Francis Gilman Blake Award of the Yale School of Medicine for Outstanding Teaching of the Medical Sciences. He is the past president of the Association of University Cardiologists, and past president of the Interurban Clinical Club, founded by William Osler in 1905. He also chaired the Clinical Trials Review Committee of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute for two terms.

Barry L. Zaret, MD

Cohen’s successor, Barry L. Zaret, MD, the Emeritus Robert W. Berliner Professor of Medicine, was appointed chief of cardiology in 1978, a position he held until 2004. Zaret is the founder of the field of nuclear cardiology and has contributed immensely to our understanding of coronary blood flow physiology, ventricular function, management and risk assessment of cardiovascular disease, the development of core laboratories for large clinical trials, and the development of molecular imaging.

He was the founding editor-in-chief of the Journal of Nuclear Cardiology, a position he held for twelve years. His textbook “Clinical Nuclear Cardiology: State-of-the-Art and Future Directions”, co-edited with Dr. George Beller, is the preeminent textbook in the field. He served as President of the Association of Professors of Cardiology, an organization he helped found. Zaret continues as a member of the full-time faculty.

Lynda Rosenfeld, MD

A widely respected clinician and educator, Lynda Rosenfeld, MD, Professor Emeritus of Medicine, graduated from Tufts University summa cum laude with a biology degree and enrolled in Cornell University Medical College where she earned her medical degree in 1976. She subsequently completed her residency and internship at Cornell Medical Center. She began her Yale career in 1979 as the first female cardiovascular medicine fellow at the Yale School of Medicine. Two years later, she became the first Yale fellow in the emerging subspecialty of cardiac electrophysiology under William Batsford, MD.

Rosenfeld was later appointed as an associate professor of medicine in cardiology in 1982, subsequently received a joint appointment in the Department of Pediatrics and was promoted to professor. For many years she served as the Director of the Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiology Fellowship Program and the Medical Director of the Yale New Haven Health Heart and Vascular Center Anticoagulation Clinic and Firm Chief of the Goodyer Teaching Service.

“Looking back two things have become clear to me over the last few months. I’ve been involved in people’s lives for 30 years, and I’ve tried to go the extra mile to be a good doctor and to truly care for my patients. And the other is that the people I work with they're amazing, they're truly amazing,” she said. “My job has also been to try and make it easier for the people coming after me to make cardiology, which I've truly loved, more attractive to women.”

Henry Cabin, MD

Professor Emeritus of Medicine Henry Cabin, MD, is the former interim chief of the Section of Cardiovascular Medicine. Cabin is an interventional cardiologist with decades of experience performing cardiac catheterizations, angioplasty, and stenting procedures. Together with Michael Cleman, MD, he launched the angioplasty program in the 1980s.

“I’ve had the privilege of being here during some of the biggest advances in cardiac care,” he said. “What has always been incredible to me about cardiology is how instantly gratifying it can be. A patient comes to the hospital with advanced disease in which an artery is closed, and a heart is barely beating, but you can treat them and two days later, they are fine. I love that we can make a diagnosis, fix it, and patients get better.”

Forrester “Woody” Lee, MD

Professor Emeritus of Medicine Forrester “Woody” Lee, MD, earned Phi Beta Kappa and cum laude honors from Dartmouth College and Yale School of Medicine. He completed residency training in Internal Medicine at Yale New Haven Hospital where he was a chief resident. He continued at Yale to complete a fellowship in cardiovascular medicine, joined the Yale faculty and was promoted to full professor.

Lee has served as Medical Director of the Yale New Haven Cardiac Transplantation and Heart Failure Program and acting Chief of Cardiovascular Medicine. He was the Associate Dean of the Office of Multicultural Affairs at Yale School of Medicine. During his career, he became the first associate dean for multicultural affairs, now the Office of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, where he advanced educational opportunities for minority students and faculty. In this role, for twenty years, he led two NIH and foundation-funded Yale summer programs to support entry of college students into medical and science careers, a summer course for prospective students who are typically underrepresented in medicine.

“These were all students who are underrepresented in medicine. We give them the opportunity to come to Yale and experience what it's like to study and progress in a community that is very supportive and very much cheering on their behalf to do well in their lives,” he said. These efforts have enabled hundreds of minority students to enroll in MD/PhD programs and pursue fulfilling careers.

Lee has published articles in the fields of heart failure, transplantation, methods of cardiac imaging and health disparities. He has developed programs to increased diversity among students and faculty and to improve the opportunities for underrepresented minority students to pursue careers in biomedical science. He is the principal investigator on major grants from the National Institutes of Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. He is also the co-author of a book about the first person of African descent to graduate from an Ivy League institution called A Noble and Independent Course, the Life of the Reverend Edward Mitchel.

Michael Cleman, MD

Michael Cleman, MD, attended medical school at Johns Hopkins University and completed residency at the University of Florida followed by fellowship training in cardiovascular medicine at Yale. Cleman joined the faculty in 1982 as an instructor and was later promoted to professor in 1992 and remains clinically active.

He has been involved in the original studies and applications of novel technologies such as coronary stents, rotational atherectomy, and intravascular ultrasound including the (Stent Restenosis Study) STRESS and SIRIUS (SIRolImUS-coated Bx Velocity stent in the treatment of patients with de novo coronary artery lesions).

Cleman has authored over 120 peer-reviewed publications.

Yale Cardiovascular Medicine Grand Rounds are held on Tuesdays at 8:00 a.m. ET. For more information on upcoming events, visit the Yale Cardiovascular Medicine website or contact Elisabeth Reitman at elisabeth.reitman@yale.edu.