Dr. Waheed Akhtar

I am an interventional cardiologist and researcher who has been at Duke for nearly 20 years. I enjoy being at Duke because of the “family” I get to work with every day. When we are able to make a patient feel better through teamwork; it’s a great feeling. I chose cardiology as my specialty because of the chance to make a difference in someone’s life in real time. When someone is having a heart attack, they are relying on you to come to their aid quickly. At that moment, I get to apply science to save a life, while learning more about what we can do to help improve people’s lives in the future. In that way, medicine also gives me the chance to learn from my patients and apply what I find to benefit the greater good. I find that whole process is exciting. When I am not at work, I enjoy spending time with my school-aged children. Dr. Patel is highly rated in 22 conditions, according to our data. His top areas of expertise are Peripheral Artery Disease, Atherosclerosis, Coronary Heart Disease, Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (PCI), and Angioplasty.

Jonathan Piccini is a Cardiologist and a Cardiac Electrophysiologist in Morrisville, North Carolina. Dr. Piccini has been practicing medicine for over 23 years is highly rated in 23 conditions, according to our data. His top areas of expertise are Atrial Fibrillation, Ventricular Fibrillation, Ventricular Tachycardia, Cardiac Ablation, and Pacemaker Implantation.

As a fellowship trained adult congenital heart disease specialist and Director of the Adult Congenital Heart Center at Duke, I take care of a wide spectrum of heart problems, spanning from simple shunt lesions like patent foramen ovale, atrial septal defect and patent ductus arteriosus, to more complicated disorders, like tetralogy of Fallot, Ebstein anomaly, transposition of the great arteries and single ventricles. I collaborate with my colleagues in adult and pediatric medicine to provide comprehensive health services including complex cardiac interventions like catheter-based pulmonary valve implantation, closure of aortopulmonary collaterals and coarctation stenting. I am also skilled at the non-invasive and invasive assessment of patients with pulmonary hypertension. Congenital heart disease is my passion and I strive to educate my patients, their doctors and our fabulous trainees in order to improve everyone's awareness of these challenging conditions. My spare time is spent mostly at home with my wife and 2 teenage boys. I enjoy participating in and watching all types of major sports and also enjoy traveling. Dr. Krasuski is highly rated in 10 conditions, according to our data. His top areas of expertise are Atrial Septal Defect (ASD), Patent Foramen Ovale, Congenital Heart Disease (CHD), Heart Transplant, and Thrombectomy.