Dr. Atif Qasim

Dr. Sammy Elmariah is an interventional cardiologist who cares for adults with heart valve disease, coronary artery disease and congenital heart disease. He is an expert in transcatheter (minimally invasive) heart valve procedures, including transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR), transcatheter edge-to-edge mitral valve repair (TEER or MitraClip) and transcatheter mitral valve replacement (TMVR). He also specializes in assessing new medical devices for repairing or replacing the heart's tricuspid valve. The overall goal of Elmariah's research is to advance transcatheter and other surgical procedures for heart valve disease in order to maximize patient health and outcomes. He leads several clinical trials (studies with human volunteers) focused on valvular heart disease. These include landmark studies testing new transcatheter devices that treat heart valve disease without the need for open heart surgery. He and his research team are also investigating how to increase access to heart valve disease treatments and improve patient involvement in the management of their own care. And they are studying biomarkers (distinctive, measurable substances) in the blood that may help doctors determine the optimal time for individual patients to undergo heart valve procedures. His research team is funded by the National Institutes of Health, American Heart Association, U.S. Department of Defense and several industry partners. Elmariah earned his medical degree from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. He completed a residency in internal medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. He completed fellowships in interventional cardiology and structural heart disease at Massachusetts General Hospital, an affiliate of Harvard Medical School. He also has a master of public health degree from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Dr. Sammy Elmariah is married to Dr. Sarina Elmariah, a dermatologist at UCSF, and they are the proud parents of two wonderful boys. Dr. Elmariah is highly rated in 13 conditions, according to our data. His top areas of expertise are Aortic Valve Stenosis, Mitral Stenosis, Patent Foramen Ovale, Aortic Valve Replacement, and Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR).

Dr. Edward P. Gerstenfeld is chief of the UCSF Cardiac Electrophysiology and Arrhythmia Service. His expertise includes treating arrhythmias, or irregular heartbeats, with catheter ablation. Specific techniques, such as endocardial and epicardial ablation, may be used for atrial fibrillation, supraventricular tachycardia or ventricular tachycardia. Gerstenfeld also specializes in treating patients with inherited arrhythmia syndromes such as arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, Brugada syndrome, long QT syndrome and adult congenital heart disease. Treatments include implantation of pacemakers, defibrillators and cardiac resynchronization devices. In his research, Gerstenfeld studies the mechanisms of arrhythmia, new technologies for mapping and ablation of arrhythmias, biomedical signal processing and electrocardiography. He is the primary investigator for several clinical trials. Gerstenfeld earned a medical degree at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and a master of science degree in biomedical engineering at Northwestern University. He completed a residency at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, a cardiology fellowship at the University of Massachusetts, a research fellowship at UCSF and an electrophysiology fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania. Gerstenfeld is a fellow of the American College of Cardiology and a member of the Heart Rhythm Society and American Heart Association. He has published numerous manuscripts and book chapters, and he often lectures on mapping and treating arrhythmias. He is associate editor of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC): Clinical Electrophysiology. Dr. Gerstenfeld is highly rated in 19 conditions, according to our data. His top areas of expertise are Arrhythmias, Atrial Fibrillation, Ventricular Tachycardia, Cardiac Ablation, and Pacemaker Implantation.

Dr. Theodore Abraham is a cardiologist who cares for adults with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, or HCM (heart muscle thickening that forces the heart to work harder than it should). He co-directs the Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Clinic, a designated center of excellence for HCM care. HCM is the most common cause of sudden death in athletes, especially young athletes. Because the condition is usually inherited and often goes undiagnosed, he has a particular interest in evaluating patients with suspected HCM as well as family members of patients with the condition. Abraham's research focuses on risk prediction and early diagnosis of HCM. He uses advanced imaging and computational techniques to better assess heart health in athletes. He was on the editorial board of the Journal of the American Society of Echocardiography, Journal of the American College of Cardiology: Cardiovascular Imaging, and Circulation: Cardiovascular Imaging (a journal of the American Heart Association). He also serves as an expert on HCM for the British Medical Journal. Abraham earned his medical degree from the University of Mumbai in India. He completed a residency in internal medicine at Wake Forest University School of Medicine, where he also completed a research fellowship in echocardiography. He completed a fellowship in clinical cardiology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and a fellowship in advanced echocardiography at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, where he stayed on as a consultant cardiologist. Before joining UCSF, he was a professor of medicine, radiology and radiological science at Johns Hopkins Medicine, where he also served as associate dean for research. There, he founded the Hopkins Heart Hype Program, a community outreach program screening high school and college athletes for heart disease and educating them about heart health and CPR. Abraham has received numerous research grants and awards for his work. He is president of the American Society of Echocardiography and was the founder-president of the Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Medical Society. Abraham is part of the San Francisco Giants and UCSF Health's partnership to provide players and staff with top-tier medical care and promote community well-being. Dr. Abraham is highly rated in 16 conditions, according to our data. His top areas of expertise are Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy (HCM), Cardiomyopathy, Subvalvular Aortic Stenosis, and Familial Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy.