.gif)
Merrimack Valley Cardiology News
August 2008
We are looking forward to welcoming our newest physician, Dr. Christopher Hong, to our group. He has trained at both the Beth Israel-Deaconess Medical Center and Tufts Medical Center and brings a wide breadth and depth of knowledge in a variety of cardiac imaging modalities including echocardiography, carotid ultrasound, nuclear cardiology and cardiac CT. By hiring Dr. Hong, we hope to continue to provide our patients with the most up to date cardiovascular care possible.
July 2008
Serving as Chief of Cardiology, Dr. Richard Birkhead, helped unveil the new $8 million Heart and Vascular Center at Lowell General Hospital as noted in the Lowell Sun. Read more about it here.
March 2008
Dr. Benjamin Smith recently published an article in the March 2008 issue of HeartRhythm entitiled
"Regularly irregular narrow complex tachycardia: What is the mechanism?" HeartRhythm is the Official Journal of the Heart Rhythm Society.
January 2008
Dr. James Waters worked with Saints Medical Center to help to provide cardiovascular screening for first responders including firefighters, police, ambulance and support personnel.
December 2007
Dr. Omar Ali gave a well-received lecture on heart attacks for Chelmsford first responders including the Fire Department, EMT's and Police Department.
Dr. Walter Jo was elected as Medical Executive Committee Member-at-Large at Lowell General Hospital.
August 2007
We are delighted that Dr. Benjamin Smith, an electrophysiologist (cardiologist specializing in the electrical tissue of the heart), joined our group in August, 2007. He performs complex electrophysiologic procedures including diagnosis and treatment of arrhythmias, ablations for certain types of arrhythmias as well as implantation of pacemaker and defibrillators. He is the current head of the Electrophysiology Lab at Lowell General Hospital.
We are proud to report that both our echocardiogram laboratory as well as our nuclear laboratory are nationally accredited and the first and only in the area to be certified by the Intersocietal Commission for the Accreditation of Echocardiography Laboratories (ICAEL) and The Intersocietal Commission for the Accreditation of Nuclear Medicine Laboratories (ICANL).
Dr. Richard Birkhead and Dr.Omar Ali worked together with Lowell General Hospital staff to develop a protocol to cool patients urgently who have suffered from a cardiac arrest. This new technique has been shown in recent trials to improve patient survival.
Dr. Arash Tabaee continues to organized well received cardiac ultrasound conferences at Saints Medical Center for physicians and technicians.