Dr. Eric Velazquez named the Berliner Professor of Cardiology
Dr. Eric Jose Velazquez, newly named as the Robert W. Berliner Professor of Cardiology, is globally recognized as an authority in heart failure, cardiovascular clinical trials, and cardiac imaging.
Velazquez came to Yale in June, when he was appointed chief of the Section of Cardiovascular Medicine in the Department of Internal Medicine, chief of cardiovascular medicine at Yale New Haven Hospital, and physician-in-chief of the Heart and Vascular Center for the Yale-New Haven Health System. Prior to those appointments, he served as professor of medicine in the Division of Cardiology at Duke University, and held appointments at the Duke Clinical Research Institute and Duke Global Health Institute.
Velazquez is a clinician-investigator whose major contributions to science include the design, development, and implementation of landmark, randomized clinical trials that have altered international guidelines and the treatment of patients with chronic heart failure, particularly those with concomitant coronary artery disease. With his Duke colleagues and over 100 centers worldwide, Velazquez led the Surgical Treatment of Ischaemic Heart Failure Trial. The program defined the role for coronary artery bypass grafting in increasing survival of patients with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction.
Velazquez partnered with colleagues at Moi University in Western Kenya to develop a Center for Excellence for Chronic, Non-communicable Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Diseases, including the country’s first intensive cardiac care and research training program. He established the Duke Echo Laboratory Database, one of the largest imaging repositories in the world with over 600,000 digitized clinical studies to champion research that link cardiac imaging findings more directly to clinical outcomes.
A graduate of Williams College, Velazquez earned his M.D. from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He completed his internal medicine and cardiology training at Duke University, including holding fellowships in clinical research and echocardiography.
Velazquez has authored more than 250 peer-reviewed publications, chaired the American Society of Echocardiography’s Taskforce on International Echocardiography, and is an incoming associate editor for Circulation Cardiovascular Imaging. He is a fellow of the American College of Cardiology, American College of Physicians, American Society of Echocardiography, and American Heart Association. In 2014, he was elected to the American Society of Clinical Investigation.
