2025's June spotlight is Dr. Chowdhury H. Ahsan! If they could address the entire interventionist community, they would say: A tincture in time saves nine: Think logically, decide and act fast for the work you are trained for. Reply here.
Tell us about yourself.
Professor of Medicine,
Program Director, Cardiovascular Disease, Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine,
University of Nevada Las Vegas
Director, Cardiac Catheterization Laboratories, University Medical Center, Ls Vegas.
A native of Bangladesh, I received my medical degree from Dhaka Medical College and was awarded the Gold Medal in Medicine. I received the prestigious Commonwealth Scholarship and completed a Ph.D. in Clinical Pharmacology/General Medicine at the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom for my research on the ethnic variation of the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of calcium channel blockers. I then received the postgraduate training in Medicine and became a Member of Royal College of Physicians of London in 1992. I subsequently moved to the United States and completed my postgraduate training in Internal Medicine and Cardiovascular Disease at the University of Pennsylvania and Drexel University College of Medicine in Philadelphia, and did my Interventional Cardiology Fellowship at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York. I am Board Certified in Internal Medicine, Cardiovascular Medicine, Nuclear Cardiology, and Interventional Cardiology. I was awarded the Young Investigators' Award by the American Society of Nuclear Cardiology in 2001, and American Society of Echocardiography in 2004. I was Associate Professor and the Director of Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory at the University of California, Irvine Medical Center before joining Nevada Heart & Vascular Center. I have recently been appointed as Clinical Professor of Medicine by the University of Nevada School of Medicine (UNSOM), and am currently the Director of Cardiac Catheterization Laboratories and Cardiovascular Research at the University Medical Center (UMC). Under my leadership, the Cardiology Fellowship program of University of Nevada School of Medicine at University Medical Center, Nevada Heart and Vascular Center and VA Medical Center has been approved and been started since July 1, 2014. I am the Director of this Cardiology Fellowship Program. This is a significant achievement for the state of Nevada and Las Vegas community to bring academia in Nevada and overall quality of care to the higher level as this is the only cardiology fellowship program in the state.
I started work for the community when I was a student. I contributed significantly for the establishment of Shandhani, a voluntary organization of the medical and dental students of Bangladesh to promote blood donation and posthumous.eye donation. I became the Secretary General of this organization. I did a collaborative research work between Southampton University, UK and local cardiovascular institute in Dhaka, Bangladesh when I was a student at Southampton. As a cardiologist, I started undertaking the mission of helping and growing a major teaching hospital in cardiovascular care in Bangladesh. I take special interest in building Cardiovascular Interventional clinics and research programs in developing countries, and have led teams of U.S. Physicians, Technologists and Nurses to exchange work experiences there. I make these trips on my vacation time and have taken cardiologists, nurses, cardiac cath lab technical personnel, cardiovascular surgeons to do workshops, lectures, and hands on training. has championed the cause of treating acute coronary syndrome patients early and for the better outcome. I am in the editorial board of the journal of World Heart Federation, Global Heart.
I have done several community programs to make people aware of the cardiovascular care. I have done this in Orange County, California when I was a faculty at the University of California and also jn Las Vegas. This year I volunteered to make the seniors aware of cardiovascular care in the initiative taken by Las Vegas Review Journal for the first time. I was awarded the prestigious Las Vegas HEALS award for my services to the community. I am named in Who's Who and also enlisted in World Leaders in Medicine. I am an Honoree of Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honors Society for my leadership and contribution in Cardiovascular Medicine.
I served as the Governor of American College of Cardiology Nevada Chapter from 2021-2023. I am currently a board member of Nevada State Board of Medical Examiners. I was the recipient of the honorary fellowship degree of FCPS by Bangladesh College of Physicians and Surgeons in 2022. This is a prestigious institutional recognition by the College.
I am the founder president of SureCare, an accountable healthcare initiative to bring healthcare expertise and services to remote areas of Bangladesh via technological apps particularly in the areas of emergency cardiovascular care. I am the co-chair of SCAI, USA. (SCAI is the organization of Interventional Cardiologists).
Key Points: of Point of Care Services with Experts available for local Providers by App:
a. Promoting and transferring Medical Education, Technology and Research
b. Exchanging Clinical experience : North South Dialogue in applications of clinical experience and knowledge.
c. Taking Expertise to Point of Care Service Centers : Use Medical Apps
d. Ensuring : i. Access to Healthcare and system of care ii. Accountability and iii. Affordability
Triage, Treat and Transfer or send home with follow up care
What are you most passionate about?
Promoting Cardiac Care Everywhere for Everyone. Since the completion of my fellowships, I felt obligated to give back to the country where I came from. Also, I feel strongly to serve the community I live in.
We have improved d2B time in our teaching hospital since I moved in 2007. We now have a fellowship which I established in 2014. I am an educator primarily, we go thru the trials and try to implement best practices. It is nice to see the fellows graduate and establish themselves. I took the team from UC Irvine to Dhaka Bangladesh and helped the ACS STEMI program In hospitals there. I also did the first Rota PCI in Bangladesh, Aspiration thrombectomy a simple thing but we took the equipment from here and now it is a common practice when needed. I took the imaging facilities like IVUS and OCT in 2006 with donation money from here. Now we have more than 125 cath labs in Bangladesh and over 10 of them with active imaging programs and encouraging more. SCAI Bangladesh is now a Tier 1 program there and we have done PCI in small towns like Sylhet and also in Chittagong. I also did the first Rotational Atherectomy case in Chittagong in 2023.
Newer challenges are how to address cardiogenic shock, how to do a STEMI Network and expedite faster care in high risk ACS. We have developed an app available in Apple App store and Google play store "Physician portal of SureCare" which can be used to coordinate care. I am actively involved in SCAI International and passionate about sharing our collective knowledge and experience with colleagues of other countries, collaborate and provide the best care to patients around the world.
What would you like your colleagues to know about you?
Passionate, loyal and do not like to give up!
Keen to promote CV Care everywhere!
Learn more about Dr. Ahsan, 2017 Inspired Excellence in Healthcare Award Recipient:
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