It is my pleasure to announce that Dr. Sumanth D. Prabhu will join the Department of Medicine as the new Chief for the Division of Cardiology. Dr. Prabhu will become the Tobias and Hortense Lewin Distinguished Professor of Cardiovascular Diseases on October 1, 2021. Dr. Prabhu joins us from the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), where he has been the Director of the Division of Cardiovascular Disease and the Mary G. Waters Chair of Cardiovascular Medicine. Dr. Prabhu is a distinguished physician scientist who received his MD degree at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia and his internal medicine residency at the University of Pittsburgh. He did his cardiology fellowship at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio (UTHSCSA). He served on the faculty at UTHSCSA and at the University of Louisville before being recruited to UAB.
Dr. Prabhu has significant experience in cardiovascular disease leadership, cardiology clinical operations, research, training and mentoring fellows and graduate students. He served as the Director of the Cardiology Fellowship Program at UTHSCSA, and was the Director of the Coronary Care Unit and Cardiology at the University of Louisville Hospital. He also served as the Director of the Heart Failure Section and the Director of Heart Failure and Transplant Research at the University of Louisville. At UAB, he is Director of the Comprehensive Cardiovascular Center, and Cardiologist-in-Chief and Co-Director of the Cardiovascular Institute at UAB Hospital.
Dr. Prabhu is board certified in internal medicine, cardiovascular disease, advanced heart failure and transplant cardiology. He is a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation, the American Clinical and Climatological Association, and the Association of University Cardiologists. He is currently President of the Southern Society for Clinical Investigation and he serves on the Scientific Committee of the Sarnoff Cardiovascular Research Foundation. He is also a Councilor for the Association of Professors of Cardiology.
Dr. Prabhu has won a number of honors and awards, including being named an Established Investigator of the American Heart Association, and Mentor of the Year for the junior faculty division at the Southern Society for Clinical Investigation. He is currently an associate editor for the journal Circulation Research and an editorial consultant for the JACC Basic to Translational Research. He has served as an NIH reviewer for a number of special emphasis panels and scientific review groups, as well as the CCHF and MPOR study sections. He is also currently the Vice Chair for the AHA BCVS Specialty Conference Program Committee.
Dr. Prabhu’s research focuses on heart failure and the inflammatory and immunologic mechanisms involved with acute and chronic heart failure. He has specific studies focusing on macrophage circadian rhythms and disruption in heart failure, the role of macrophages in the pathophysiology of heart failure and their potential role as therapeutic targets. Dr. Prabhu’s research has been funded by the NIH and the VA for more than 20 years and currently includes funding on cardiac macrophages as disease drivers in chronic ischemic heart failure, macrophage circadian clock disruption and inflammation in heart failure, and a T32 on basic and translational science in heart failure. In addition, he collaborates with colleagues on protocols for patients on continuous flow ventricular assist devices, tissue chip models for cardiovascular development and disease, metabolic rhythm alterations as a cause for obesity-related cardiomyopathy, and integrated cellular and tissue engineering for ischemic heart disease. Dr. Prabhu has made seminal contributions to the field of inflammation and immune mediated heart disease through basic, clinical and translational research. He has identified key components of the immune mediated drivers of cardiac remodeling in chronic heart failure, and the effects of innate and adaptive immunomodulation on cardiac outcomes and remodeling in heart failure.
Through Dr. Prabhu’s leadership, UAB has had significant growth in their cardiovascular division in clinical operations and research funding. We are very enthusiastic about Dr. Prabhu’s recruitment and know that he will continue to excel and develop the Division of Cardiology here at Washington University School of Medicine. Please join me in welcoming Dr. Sumanth Prabhu into his new leadership role.
I would also like to recognize the important contributions of Dr. Doug Mann and Dr. Greg Ewald. Dr. Mann was Division Chief from 2009-2019. He led the Division of Cardiology through a period of significant growth, expanded basic and translational research and grew the clinical operations at the Heart Care Institute at Barnes-Jewish Hospital West County, South County and the main campus. Dr. Mann remains a dedicated physician scientist, outstanding clinician and mentor at Washington University School of Medicine, Barnes-Jewish Hospital and the Veterans Affairs St. Louis Health Care System. I am very grateful for his leadership and accomplishments in cardiology here.
Dr. Greg Ewald became the interim Division Chief in May of 2019, when Dr. Mann stepped down. Dr. Ewald is a nationally recognized expert in advanced heart failure, cardiac transplantation and clinical trials. He recruited a number a new faculty in key areas, including interventional cardiology, heart failure, echocardiography, electrophysiology and general cardiology. Dr. Ewald’s leadership has been critical to the success of the Heart Transplant Program at Washington University School of Medicine and Barnes-Jewish Hospital. During COVID, Dr. Ewald led from the front, overseeing numerous innovative approaches to provide exceptional care for COVID and non-COVID patients throughout the pandemic. I am personally very grateful for Dr. Ewald’s leadership over the past two years. Dr. Prabhu and I look forward to continuing to work closely with Dr. Ewald as an important leader in clinical operations going forward.