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A Conversation with Dean J. Kereiakes, MD
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| Deepak L. Bhatt |
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| Dean J. Kereiakes |
In this issue, Dr. Bhatt poses five questions to Dean J. Kereiakes, MD, FACC, FSCAI, medical director for both The Christ Hospital Heart and Vascular Center and the Carl and Edyth Lindner Center for Research and Education at The Christ Hospital, Cincinnati, as well as professor of clinical medicine at Ohio State University, Columbus.
Kereiakes received his medical degree from the University of Cincinnati, where he was valedictorian of his graduating class. After graduation, he completed his internship and residency at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), a senior residency at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, and a chief residency at UCSF. He then completed fellowships in adult cardiology at UCSF and in coronary angioplasty at the San Francisco Heart Institute and the Sequoia Hospital, Redwood City, Calif.
During the past 2 decades, Kereiakes has been an investigator for most of the new interventional technologies, including stents, atherectomy and cell-regenerative therapies. Throughout his career, he has performed more than 25,000 cath lab procedures, participated in more than 1,100 clinical research protocols and published more than 700 journal articles, abstracts and book chapters.
What was the defining moment that led you to your field?
Dr. Kereiakes: As a senior resident at the Massachusetts General Hospital in 1980, I was fortunate to watch Herman K. “Chip” Gold, MD, and Robert Leinbach, MD, infuse intracoronary streptokinase to recanalize an occluded infarct-related artery. Also, as a cardiology fellow at UCSF in 1983, Richard Myler, MD, asked me to be one of his “Angioplasty Fellows” and I spent 1984 working with Myler, John B. Simpson, MD, and Simon Stertzer, MD, at the San Francisco Heart Institute and The Sequoia Hospital.
Who has had the greatest influence on your career?
Dr. Kereiakes: I have been extremely fortunate to have several individuals profoundly influence my career. Lloyd Hollingsworth “Holly” Smith, MD, who was arguably the most influential chief of medicine in the country, allowed me the opportunity to train on both coasts (UCSF and Massachusetts General Hospital) and the honor of being his chief resident. As Holly’s chief resident, I had the incredible experience of directly interacting with multiple Nobel Prize laureates and I gained immense respect for basic science research.
Kanu Chatterjee, MD, remains, in my mind, the ultimate CV clinician who taught me to apply CV physiology at the bedside. Kanu mentored me in writing my first papers.
John Simpson introduced me to medical device design and development and sparked my interest in new device clinical investigation. Working with John, I materially modified the original Simpson Atherocath Directional Atherectomy device by attaching the first motor drive unit.
Have you ever been fortunate enough to witness or to have been part of medical history in the making?
Dr. Kereiakes: I have been fortunate to participate in four “first-in-man” and nine “first in the US” new medical technologies. I placed the first cobalt chromium (MultiLink Vision, Abbott Vascular) coronary stent platform in man and performed the first coronary photodynamic therapy (Antrin). The Christ Hospital was the first private community hospital in the United States to administer a recombinant tissue plasminogen activator and pioneered the use of both abciximab (Reo Pro, Centocor and EliLilly) and several oral platelet glycoprotein IIb/IIIa receptor blockers. I have also been fortunate to be among the first handful of US investigators to clinically test more than a dozen new medical technologies. Both the sobering responsibility and exhilaration of these opportunities have never grown old.
What area of research in intervention interests you most right now and why?
Dr. Kereiakes: I am intrigued by bioresorbable stent platforms and the concept of “vascular restorative therapy.” These devices offer the promise of a temporary mechanical scaffold with targeted drug therapy followed by long-term restoration of normal coronary macro/microvascular function. Bioresorption eliminates the subsequent nidus for neoatherosclerosis and late events. Obviously, the “concept” remains to be proven.
What’s up next for you?
Dr. Kereiakes: Ideally, I can see myself stepping back out of the cath lab in the next several years. I would like to retain some clinical responsibilities and focus on teaching, performing clinical research and writing medical literature.
Disclosure:
Dr. Kereiakes is a consultant for Abbott Vascular, Boston Scientific and Daiichi Sankyo/Eli Lilly, and previously consulted for Cordis and Medtronic.