Renowned Cardiologists At Join Hahnemann Hospital And Drexel University College Of Medicine Establishing “The Center For Advanced Heart Failure Care”

PHILADELPHIA, Feb. 2 /PRNewswire/ -- Cardiologists Howard Eisen, M.D. and Shelley Hankins, M.D. have joined Hahnemann University Hospital and Drexel University College of Medicine to establish The Center for Advanced Heart Failure Care. Dr. Eisen holds the position of Chief, Division of Cardiology and Thomas J. Vischer Professor of Medicine at Drexel.

Dr. Eisen plans to begin protocols to improve clinical care of the heart failure and heart transplant patients.

“We will be implementing non-invasive procedures to diagnose transplant rejection and will also be participating in trials to improve immunosuppression for cardiac transplant patients,” explains Dr. Eisen. “We are also participating in clinical trials in heart failure patients.”

Dr. Eisen received his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania. After his internship and residency at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, he served his Cardiovascular Fellowship at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

He serves as President of the American Heart Association Southeastern Pennsylvania Affiliate and as a board member for the Cardiovascular Institute of Philadelphia. He is also on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation and is a past member of the Transplant Immunology Study Section as well as a current member of the KO8 and F32 Study Sections of the National Institutes of Health. He is also an Established Investigator of the American Heart Association National Center. He served as the Principal Investigator for several grants funded by the AHA National Center and the NIH. Dr. Eisen has cared for almost one thousand heart transplant patients since 1995, making him one of the most experienced transplant cardiologists in the world.

Dr. Eisen has been named a “Top Doc” by Philadelphia Magazine and has been listed as both a Top Doctor in America and Best Doctor in America. He is also listed in Who’s Who in America and Who’s Who in Healthcare.

Also a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Dr. Hankins served her Internal Medicine residency at Johns Hopkins Hospital. She pursued her Cardiology fellowship at Tulane University in New Orleans, and Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY. She trained in advanced heart failure and cardiac transplantation at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in New York.

Her most recent publication, “Morbidity and Mortality of UNOS Status 1B Cardiac Transplant Candidates at Home,” appeared in The Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation. Dr. Hankins is a member of the Board of Directors of the American Heart Association Southeastern Pennsylvania Affiliate. At Drexel, Dr. Hankins has been appointed Director of the Mechanical Assistance Destination Program.

Hahnemann University Hospital is a 618-bed academic medical center at Broad & Vine Streets in Philadelphia, PA. The hospital is a tertiary care institution that specializes in cardiac services, heart failure and transplantation, ob/gyn, colorectal surgery, orthopedics, medical, surgical and radiation oncology, bone marrow transplantation, renal dialysis and liver/kidney/pancreas transplantation. The hospital performed the city’s first kidney transplant in 1963 and the first bone marrow transplant in 1976. In 1986, Hahnemann became Philadelphia’s first Level I Regional Resource Trauma Center for adults and, since then, it has been served by University MedEvac, an aeromedical transport program for critically ill patients. Hahnemann is fully accredited by the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, the nation’s oldest and largest hospital accreditation agency. An affiliate of Drexel University College of Medicine, Hahnemann is part of Tenet Pennsylvania, which also includes Graduate Hospital, Roxborough Memorial Hospital, St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children and Warminster Hospital. To learn more about Hahnemann, visit http://www.hahnemannhospital.com/.

Drexel University College of Medicine has established some of the most highly innovative and rigorous academic programs available today, incorporating science and technology into traditional medical training. Drexel’s College of Medicine has participated in pioneering clinical trials involving the world’s first implantable artificial heart, established one of the largest regional centers for spinal cord research, developed an ob-gyn center overseen by internationally prominent specialists in maternal-fetal medicine, and created one of the largest centers for malaria study in the nation. The College of Medicine has been designated one of 19 Vanguard National Centers of Excellence in Women’s Health by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, and is highly respected in numerous other specialties including neurology, pain management, orthopedics and hepatology.

Drexel University College of Medicine

CONTACT: Molly Tritt, Hahnemann University Hospital, +1-215-762-7235; orColeen Cannon, Drexel University College of Medicine, +1-215-762-2060