What's New

New Faculty Members

Vivian M. Abascal, M.D., has been appointed Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine (Cardiology). Formerly Assistant Professor of Medicine, Clinical Series Track, at the University of Kentucky Medical Center, Dr. Abascal was also Co-director of the Cardiovascular Women's Health Clinic in the Gill Heart Institute at the University of Kentucky, and Co-director of the Heart Station and Echocardiography Laboratory at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Kentucky. She received her medical degree from the Universidad Central de Venezuela, Caracas, and completed several clinical and research fellowships in medicine, cardiology, and cardiovascular epidemiology at Harvard Medical School and Boston University Medical School. She specializes in topics related to women and heart disease and to echocardiography.

Avi Fischer, M.D., trained in Cardiology at Mount Sinai and went to The Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, for training in Cardiac Electrophysiology. While in Boston, he trained with one of the leaders in the field of laser lead extraction for removal of chronic pacemaker and defibrillator leads. Dr. Fischer will be bringing this technology to Mount. Sinai. He has a keen interest in implantable device therapy and will be acting as the Director of the Device Therapy Clinic. He performs a variety of implants, including pacemakers, defibrillators and bi-ventricular devices and has a particular interest in cardiac resynchronization therapy for patients with advanced congestive heart failure. In addition, Dr. Fischer is skilled in catheter ablation of arrhythmias including complex supraventricular and ventricular tachyarrhythmias as well as atrial fibrillation.

David Harnick, M.D., joins Mount Sinai as Clinical Instructor in Medicine (Cardiology). Dr. Harnick received his medical degree from Mount Sinai, where he also completed several fellowships in cardiovascular medicine. His most recent research focuses on imaging modalities in cardiology.

Johnny Lee, M.D., has been appointed Clinical Instructor in Medicine (Cardiology). After receiving his medical degree from Mount Sinai, Dr. Lee completed several fellowships in cardiovascular medicine, also at Mount Sinai. He is the co-author of a textbook, Cardiology at a Glance (McGraw Hill, 2002), as well as several other publications. He is frequently invited to present lectures about cardiovascular health. In July, Dr. Lee opened his own private practice, New York Associates, PC.

Pedro R. Moreno, M.D., has joined Mount Sinai as Associate Professor of Medicine (Cardiology). A world-renowned expert in high-risk atherosclerosis, Dr. Moreno has conducted research demonstrating that inflammation plays a dual role in atherosclerosis, contributing to both plaque rupture and coronary thrombosis. Dr. Moreno was previously Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine and Director of the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory at Veterans Administration Medical Center in Lexington, Kentucky. After receiving his medical degree from Javeriana University in Bogota, Columbia, Dr. Moreno completed several clinical and research fellowships in Cardiology at Harvard Medical School. He has been honored by numerous cardiology societies.

Sean Pinney, M.D., will be joining Dr. Alan Gass as the Assistant Director of the Cardiac Transplant Program and member of the Heart Failure Service. He received his medical degree from Georgetown University and completed a residency and chief residency in internal medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital in Boston. He completed fellowships in cardiology, heart failure and cardiac transplantation at Columbia University before joining the faculty there as Instructor of Medicine in the Division of Circulatory Physiology. His clinical interests include the management of patients with advanced heart failure, the treatment of heart failure in adults with congenital heart disease and cardiac transplant medicine. Dr. Pinney is an active clinical researcher and author of several recent publications focusing on transplant vasculopathy and post-transplant care.

Kothandaraman Purushothaman, M.D., has joined Mount Sinai as Assistant Professor of Medicine (Cardiology). He was previously Director of Histology in Dr. Pedro Moreno's Cardiovascular Research Laboratory at the University of Kentucky. Dr. Purushothaman earned his medical degree from Madras University in India and completed his post-doctoral training in pathology at Madras Medical College and Jawaharlal Nehru Institute in India. His research focuses on a range of areas related to atherosclerosis and plaque.

Meerani Purushothaman, Ph.D., has been appointed Assistant Professor of Medicine (Cardiology). She was most recently a research scientist in the molecular and cell nutrition group at the University of Kentucky. She received her doctorate in biochemistry at the University of Madras in India. Her postdoctoral research work has focused on endothelial cells in the study of nutrition and atherosclerosis.

Sanjay Rajagopalan, M.D., Director of the Clinical Cardiovascular MRI and CT Imaging Program, is part of a growing specialty in vascular disease. He studies blood vessels-the way they respond to different pathophysiologic states and to different therapies. He treats patients with all types of vascular disorders and afflictions affecting the circulatory system-blood clotting disorders, peripheral-arterial disease, and varicose veins, among others.