Press Release

Valentin Fuster, MD, PhD, Receives 2013 Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography Arthur S. Agatston Cardiovascular Disease Prevention Award

Dr. Fuster Honored for His Lifelong Contributions for the Prevention of Heart Disease

New York, NY
(July 15, 2013)

The Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography (SCCT) has honored Valentin Fuster, MD, PhD, Director of Mount Sinai Heart at The Mount Sinai Medical Center, with the 2013 SCCT Arthur S. Agatston Cardiovascular Disease Prevention Award at its SCCT Annual Scientific Meeting in Montréal, Canada, on July 12.

The award, designed to promote the prevention of death from heart disease, recognizes individuals whose pioneering efforts have saved lives from a leading killer throughout the world, coronary artery disease. SCCT recognizes Dr. Fuster for his lifelong contributions to achieve disease prevention in the field of cardiology, in particular for his monumental work in unraveling the molecular and cellular bases for atherosclerosis development, providing a foundation for developing diagnostic and treatment approaches.

"I feel very proud to receive this award that wears the name of Dr. Arthur S. Agatston," says Dr. Fuster, who also serves as Physician-in-Chief, Director of the Zena and Michael A. Wiener Cardiovascular Institute and the Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis Center for Cardiovascular Health at The Mount Sinai Medical Center. “Dr. Agatston was one of the first who had the vision to link a diagnostic tool (coronary calcification), with its use, to encourage prevention (Agatston Score). He is a visionary."

Dr. Agatston, is a pioneer in the field of noninvasive cardiac imaging and a leading preventive cardiologist. His scientific work, first reported in 1991 with Dr. Warren Janowitz, resulted in the Agatston Score, a method for screening patients for coronary artery disease by measuring the amount of atherosclerosis in the coronary arteries. The Agatston Score is currently used throughout the world and considered by many experts to be the single best predictor of future heart attack. To help his cardiac and diabetes patients improve their blood chemistries and lose weight, Agatston also developed a diet, which led to his first book, The South Beach Diet. Currently, Dr. Agatston serves as the Medical Director of Wellness and Prevention at Baptist Health South Florida.

"Dr. Fuster is a true gentleman and a scholar," says Dr. Arthur Agatston, the preventive cardiologist for whom the SCCT award is named and who presented the award to Dr. Fuster. “His ability to pioneer cutting edge research and then communicate it in a clear, concise and exciting manner is unparalleled in the field of cardiology. It is a great honor for me and for the SCCT to have Dr. Valentin Fuster accept our cardiovascular disease prevention award."

As a world-renowned cardiologist, Dr. Fuster has served with distinction in numerous leadership capacities in the cardiovascular community throughout the globe, including past President of the American Heart Association, past President of the World Heart Federation, member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, former member of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute Advisory Council, and former Chairman of the Fellowship Training Directors Program of the American College of Cardiology.

In addition, Dr. Fuster has published more than 900 scientific articles on the subjects of coronary artery disease, atherosclerosis and thrombosis, and is the lead editor of two major textbooks on cardiology, “The Heart" (previously edited by Dr. J. Willis Hurst) and "Atherothrombosis and Coronary Artery Disease" (with Dr. Eric Topol and Dr. Elizabeth Nabel).

Past recipients of the SCCT Arthur S. Agatston Cardiovascular Disease Prevention Award include: William P. Castelli, MD, of The Heart Center of MetroWest in Framingham, MA; Scott M. Grundy, PhD, MD, of University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, TX; and Sanjay Gupta, MD, Neurosurgeon, Author, and CNN’s Chief Medical Correspondent.

SCCT is committed to offering support through research, education for physicians, and dissemination of information for the general public on the options available for the prevention of coronary artery disease. SCCT is the professional society devoted exclusively to cardiovascular computed tomography (CCT). With an expanding global membership, it is acknowledged and recognized as the representative and advocate for research, education, and clinical excellence in the use of cardiovascular computed tomography.

About The Mount Sinai Medical Center
The Mount Sinai Medical Center encompasses both The Mount Sinai Hospital and Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Established in 1968, the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai is one of the leading medical schools in the United States. The Icahn School of Medicine is noted for innovation in education, biomedical research, clinical care delivery, and local and global community service. It has more than 3,400 faculty members in 32 departments and 14 research institutes, and ranks among the top 20 medical schools both in National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding and by U.S. News & World Report.

The Mount Sinai Hospital, founded in 1852, is a 1,171-bed tertiary- and quaternary-care teaching facility and one of the nation's oldest, largest and most-respected voluntary hospitals. In 2012, U.S. News & World Report ranked The Mount Sinai Hospital 14th on its elite Honor Roll of the nation's top hospitals based on reputation, safety, and other patient-care factors. Mount Sinai is one of just 12 integrated academic medical centers whose medical school ranks among the top 20 in NIH funding and by U.S. News & World Report and whose hospital is on the U.S. News & World Report Honor Roll. Nearly 60,000 people were treated at Mount Sinai as inpatients last year, and approximately 560,000 outpatient visits took place.

For more information, visit http://www.mountsinai.org.
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Tags: Heart - Cardiology & Cardiovascular Surgery, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Mount Sinai Health System, Patient Care

About the Mount Sinai Health System

Mount Sinai Health System is one of the largest academic medical systems in the New York metro area, with more than 43,000 employees working across eight hospitals, over 400 outpatient practices, nearly 300 labs, a school of nursing, and a leading school of medicine and graduate education. Mount Sinai advances health for all people, everywhere, by taking on the most complex health care challenges of our time — discovering and applying new scientific learning and knowledge; developing safer, more effective treatments; educating the next generation of medical leaders and innovators; and supporting local communities by delivering high-quality care to all who need it.

Through the integration of its hospitals, labs, and schools, Mount Sinai offers comprehensive health care solutions from birth through geriatrics, leveraging innovative approaches such as artificial intelligence and informatics while keeping patients’ medical and emotional needs at the center of all treatment. The Health System includes approximately 7,300 primary and specialty care physicians; 13 joint-venture outpatient surgery centers throughout the five boroughs of New York City, Westchester, Long Island, and Florida; and more than 30 affiliated community health centers. We are consistently ranked by U.S. News & World Report's Best Hospitals, receiving high "Honor Roll" status, and are highly ranked: No. 1 in Geriatrics and top 20 in Cardiology/Heart Surgery, Diabetes/Endocrinology, Gastroenterology/GI Surgery, Neurology/Neurosurgery, Orthopedics, Pulmonology/Lung Surgery, Rehabilitation, and Urology. New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai is ranked No. 12 in Ophthalmology. U.S. News & World Report’s “Best Children’s Hospitals” ranks Mount Sinai Kravis Children's Hospital among the country’s best in several pediatric specialties.

For more information, visit https://www.mountsinai.org or find Mount Sinai on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.