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A Conversation with Michael R. Jaff, DO
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For this issue, Dr. Bhatt talks with Michael R. Jaff, DO, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, the Paul and Phyllis Fireman Endowed Chair in Vascular Medicine and medical director of the Fireman Vascular Center at Massachusetts General Hospital. Jaff, who also is a member of the Cardiology Today’s Intervention Editorial Board, has been an active clinical consultant in vascular medicine for peripheral artery disease, carotid artery disease, venous thromboembolic disease, aneurysmal diseases and vascular diagnostic strategies for 3 decades.
Jaff founded and continues to serve as medical director of the Vascular Ultrasound Core Laboratory (VasCore) and the VasCore Training and Education Center in Boston, a first-of-its-kind clinical trial image training center. VasCore has become the largest ultrasound clinical trial core laboratory in the United States. The center has been involved with imaging design and assessments for more than 170 prospective multicenter trials in more than 60 countries.
Throughout his career, Jaff has been involved with many vascular trials, including LEVANT 2, IN.PACT SFA, CLEVER, HERCULES, CORAL, SAPPHIRE and Zilver PTX. He also played a key role in establishing the American Board of Vascular Medicine in 2005, an organization dedicated to the certification of qualified vascular medicine physicians.
What are your hobbies outside of practicing medicine?
Dr. Jaff: I enjoy listening to a wide variety of music. I prefer classic rock above all, but am also into current music, even some rap. I also love to practice photography. I try to spend as much time as I can on Martha’s Vineyard. I find that bike riding through the vineyard is my greatest relaxation.
What was the defining moment that led you to your field?
Dr. Jaff: I decided to be a doctor at a very young age. I was preparing for summer camp when a heart murmur was detected during my camp physical. I had to receive a coronary angiogram, which was a new procedure at the time. I was so impressed with the entire process; I don’t remember being scared, just blown away. In that moment, I knew that I wanted to practice medicine. As it turned out, there was nothing wrong with my heart; I had an innocent flow murmur. To this day, I continue to be impressed with new and disruptive technology. I enjoy seeing how it fits into the current health care climate and the long-term impact it has on improving patient safety and efficacy.
What advice would you offer to a student in medical school?
Dr. Jaff: Go into medicine for the right reason — to have a positive impact on the lives of your patients. If your motivation is to help people have healthier, happier and safer lives, then medicine is the greatest career you can choose. However, if your main motivation is based on financial or prestige incentives, you are going to be sorely disappointed.
Have you ever been fortunate enough to witness or to have been a part of medical history in the making?
Dr. Jaff: The first physician to hire me out of training was one of the real pioneers in perfecting abdominal aortic endograft procedures. That had a huge impact on the nonsurgical approaches used to repair abdominal aortic aneurysms. I also actively participated in the first randomized trial of carotid stents and was involved with the introduction of renal denervation and drug-coated balloons.
What’s up next for you?
Dr. Jaff: We recently opened the VasCore Training and Education Center, which has gained a great deal of enthusiasm. Members of the center train technologists working on multicenter clinical trials of vascular devices on how to obtain high-quality ultrasound images with state-of-the-art equipment using real patients as volunteers. The center is the first of its kind with imaging examination rooms connected to classrooms through a video communication system. The training sessions can also be recorded for future reference. The center has picked up much quicker than we thought, which is very exciting. On top of that, I have been working on preparations needed for several impending trials and the VIVA (Vascular Interventional Advances) meeting, for which I am a founding member and on the board of directors. I am also halfway finished writing my first novel. It’s a work of fiction, but related to my career.