Newswise — June 24, 2011 – (BRONX, NY) – Gordon F. Tomaselli, M.D., who earned his medical degree from Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University in 1982, will become president of the American Heart Association (AHA) on July 1. AHA is the nation’s leading voluntary health organization focused on the nation’s number one killer, cardiovascular disease, and stroke, which together claim more than 800,000 lives each year. Dr. Tomaselli is professor and director of the division of cardiology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where he has worked for the past 25 years.
“My time at Einstein really launched my career in medicine,” said Dr. Tomaselli. “I am incredibly gratefully to have learned in an environment that focuses on compassionate and scientifically rigorous medicine.”
In addition to his medical school classes and clinical rotations during the school year, Dr. Tomaselli conducted research at Einstein during the summers. “I was always interested in biological electricity,” he said. “I worked closely with Bill Norton in neurochemistry. He and my other mentors always reinforced the notion of intellectual curiosity and asking not just ‘what’ but the ‘why’ questions as well.”
A cardiac electrophysiologist, Dr. Tomaselli is an internationally recognized expert in sudden cardiac death and heart rhythm disturbances. He has focused most of his research on arrhythmias, and especially on new therapies aimed at warding off the potentially fatal heart rhythm disturbances that claim the lives of more than a quarter million Americans each year. He has published more than 150 peer-reviewed research articles and many book chapters on various aspects of arrhythmia.
In 2007 and 2008, Tomaselli served as program chair for the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions, the world’s premier conference for cardiologists. He is currently chairman of the association’s 2010-2013 Strategic Planning Task Force and president-elect. He also remains an active member of the American College of Cardiology and the Heart Rhythm Society.
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About Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva UniversityAlbert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University is one of the nation’s premier centers for research, medical education and clinical investigation. During the 2010-2011 academic year, Einstein is home to 724 M.D. students, 256 Ph.D. students, 122 students in the combined M.D./Ph.D. program, and 375 postdoctoral research fellows. The College of Medicine has 2,770 fulltime faculty members located on the main campus and at its clinical affiliates. In 2009, Einstein received more than $135 million in support from the NIH. This includes the funding of major research centers at Einstein in diabetes, cancer, liver disease, and AIDS. Other areas where the College of Medicine is concentrating its efforts include developmental brain research, neuroscience, cardiac disease, and initiatives to reduce and eliminate ethnic and racial health disparities. Through its extensive affiliation network involving five medical centers in the Bronx, Manhattan and Long Island – which includes Montefiore Medical Center, The University Hospital and Academic Medical Center for Einstein – the College of Medicine runs one of the largest post-graduate medical training programs in the United States, offering approximately 150 residency programs to more than 2,500 physicians in training. For more information, please visit www.einstein.yu.edu.
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