Vera Bittner, MD, pursues career that brings preventive cardiology to the forefront

Bittner also has a passion for photography, biking, reading and has even visited Antarctica.

A recognized leader in the field of preventive cardiology, Vera Bittner, MD, has helped create an environment for and provides guidance to future preventive cardiologists at her institution.

Bittner attended medical school at Johann Wolfgang Goethe Universität in Frankfurt, Germany, and went on to receive her MD from the University of South Alabama College of Medicine in 1981. Bittner completed residency in internal medicine at North Carolina Baptist Hospital in Winston-Salem and cardiology fellowship at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). She is currently a professor of medicine and section head of preventive cardiology at UAB and director of the cardiology fellowship program there.

Bittner is a fellow of the American College of Physicians, American College of Cardiology, American Heart Association, American Association of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation and National Lipid Association. She currently chairs the prevention committees of the ACC and AHA and serves as president of the NLA. She has also served as a reviewer for dozens of scholarly publications and currently sits on the editorial board of a number of national journals, including American Heart Journal, Circulation, Journal of the American College of Cardiology, Journal of Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation and Prevention and Journal of Clinical Lipidology.

Vera Bittner, MD Professor of Medicine and Section Head of the Preventive Cardiology Program at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Fellow of the American College of Physicians and of the American College of Cardiology. Member, CHD and Prevention section of Cardiology Today’s Editorial Board.

What do you enjoy doing when you’re not practicing medicine?

I was just married in January, so spending time with my new husband is one of my priorities. Apart from that, I enjoy digital photography, going for walks and taking bike rides. I also like to read.

If you hadn’t gone into cardiology or medicine, what would you have done?

I honestly don’t know. I enjoy doing what I’m doing, especially the combination of clinical care, research and mentoring, and I can’t really see myself doing anything else. The only thing I can think of would be a position in public health focusing on prevention at the population level rather than at the level of the individual in the clinic.

What would you consider one of your biggest successes in your specialty?

I was able to establish a cardiac rehabilitation program at UAB in the mid-1990s, at a time when prevention was not a priority, and have been able to expand this into a small section of preventive cardiology, which allows me to mentor junior faculty, residents, fellows and students toward a career in prevention.

What is the last book you read/art collection you saw/CD you bought? Why, and what did you think of it?

I’m not originally from the United States. I was raised in Germany and like to read German books in my spare time so that I don’t completely lose my language. The last one that I read was by Daniel Kehlmann, and the title translates into “Surveying the World.” It is part-documentary/part-fiction and looks at two people who surveyed the world from very different viewpoints: Alexander von Humboldt, a Columbus-like figure who traveled the world measuring the heights of mountains, recording details of local populations and conducting all kinds of scientific exploration, and Carl Friedrich Gauss, the famous mathematician. They were contemporaries and met each other in their older years. I really enjoyed it.

One art exhibit that I saw a long time back was at the Birmingham Museum of Art that looked at Egyptian portraiture and how it evolved as the Egyptian society evolved. That was very interesting because it combined the artistic with historical aspects of this changing society. I haven’t really seen anything lately that particularly impressed me.

I like a variety of music, but have recently developed a particular liking of Italian vocal music. I just recently bought a Pavarotti collection and a CD by Andrea Bocelli called “Romanza” that I enjoy.

Who do you most admire, and what would you ask that person if you had five minutes with him/her?

The people I would be most interested in talking to would be some of my ancestors, great-grandparents or people going even further back. I would like to learn more about their life experiences, where they came from, what their day-to-day concerns were. I know that I had a great-grandfather who was a physician (I even have a copy of his thesis on a gynecology topic), and I would love to talk to him and find out how different his experiences were as a rural physician at that time compared to what I do now. That would make for a very interesting comparison.

Vera Bittner and her father, Dr. Friedrich Bittner, on their Antarctic trip in 2007. Photo courtesy of: Vera Bittner, MD

What is the best advice you’ve ever received?

I was fortunate enough to grow up in a family in which we were basically told that we could do anything that we wanted to do if we worked hard enough at it. There were no limits imposed, education was a priority and we were encouraged to think big. Having this confidence instilled in me by my parents certainly helped me a lot along the way, and I believe that it had the same positive influence on my two younger siblings who have built successful careers in law and computer science.

Who do you consider a mentor?

Two people have had a major influence on my career. The first person who probably shaped my career the most is an endocrinologist named Robert Kreisberg, MD. When I met him, he was the chair of medicine and dean of the medical school at the University of South Alabama College of Medicine, Mobile. He was my first internal medicine attending physician when I was a third-year student and served as a role model for me from then on. He is also the one who introduced me to the topics of lipids and lipoproteins. I’ve stayed in touch with him throughout my entire career, and he has become a mentor and friend over time. When I came to UAB in 1984, the chair of preventive medicine was a gentleman named Albert Olberman, MD. He had cardiology training but had chosen to pursue a career in cardiovascular epidemiology and prevention. There was nobody in cardiology at UAB at the time who thought that lipids or prevention should play a significant role in cardiology. It was very important for me to have someone outside my division who validated the career I was pursuing. Bob and Al were also part of an interdisciplinary journal club at UAB (“The Lipid Breakfast”), which included both clinicians and basic scientists in atherosclerosis. The members of “The Lipid Breakfast” taught me a lot about lipoproteins and pathophysiology of atherosclerosis. This journal club has been going on for more than 20 years and still meets weekly.

What kind of diet and exercise regimen do you have?

I make sure that my weight stays stable. In terms of exercise, I don’t exclude any foods, but stay away from greasy junk food. My exercise regimen varies a good bit over time, in part related to my schedule, in part related to my travel plans. In the winter, I try to do specific exercises for skiing to prepare for my annual trip out West. When I plan a bike trip in the summer, I make sure that I ride enough to be in reasonable shape before I leave. Most of the time, I go for long walks, especially on the weekends, and try to do some resistance exercise.

What do you think will have the biggest influence on cardiology in the next 10 years?

We are basically faced with two concurrent CV epidemics that will challenge cardiology in the years to come. One of the epidemics is due to the aging of the population, the other is due to early onset CHD. We are going to get an influx of older individuals who will be requiring cardiology care, and at the same time, I think we’re going to start seeing premature disease in people who became obese and developed diabetes in their childhood and adolescence. It is not clear to me that cardiology at present has the manpower to deal with this huge influx of patients.

What is your favorite travel destination?

The best trip I have ever taken was a cruise to Antarctica. It was incredible. When you are in the ship you glide past snowy mountains and glaciers and you get to see incredible icebergs — big tabular ones and smaller ones that have melted into odd shapes. You see birds, seals and whales, and get to walk around among the penguins. There is no noise — no air traffic, no cars, no horns, no beeper, no e-mail, no TV, no radio — just quiet and awesome scenery. It was definitely the trip of a lifetime.

What is your favorite restaurant?

I’m fortunate in that my husband likes to cook and I like to eat what he cooks. We eat at home a lot. When we do go out, I enjoy Italian restaurants. There is a place called Bottega, close to where I live, that serves many dishes that I like. – by Eric Raible