Research

The Division is actively conducting various research projects under the oversight of its Cardiovascular Research Unit (CRU). The CRU provides the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine with expertise and support in protocol development, protocol coordination, centralized oversight and data quality control for Cardiology Clinical Trials.

The CRU team includes our clinical manager, multiple research coordinators, senior research associate, data management coordinator and biostatistician.

Our faculty are actively involved in a variety of clinical trials with areas of research including carotid artery disease, coronary artery disease, ischemic heart disease and myocardial infarction, congenital heart disease, heart failure and electrophysiological heart disorders.

The CRU specializes in cutting-edge technology for pacemaker and cardiac devices and oversees all investigator-initiated, federal, foundation and industry-sponsored studies in the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, working closely with the USC Clinical Trials Office (CTO), Department of Contracts and Grants (DCG) and the USC Health Sciences Campus Institutional Review Board (IRB).

The Division also has an active technology development program and has worked closely with the USC Stevens Institute for Innovation and outside entities to develop new technology and use of modern communication modalities to diagnose cardiovascular disease and fully engage patients and patients’ families and caregivers. Currently, the Division has 48 federal, foundation and industry sponsored protocols and 10 investigator-initiated protocols.

  • Active projects:

    • Impella Dependence in High Risk PCI – JACC 2/2023

    • Instantaneous detection of acute MI in rats – European Heart Journal 7/2023

  • Research Interest:

    • Interventional cardiology

    • Interventional heart failure

Ray V. Matthews, MD

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Interventional Cardiology

Advanced Heart Failure and Transplant Cardiology

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Ajay S. Vaidya, MD

Aaron Wolfson, MD

  • Active projects:

    • Standing scales QI Project

    • The Effects of Medication Regimen Complexity on Heart Failure Readmissions in an Underserved Population

    • QI Project: Telehealth vs In-person follow-up in HF clinic

    • Complex Case Studies of Patients with Methamphetamine-Associated Cardiomyopathy

  • Research Interest:

    • Biometric Scale Monitoring of Heart Failure Post-Hospitalization

    • Smartphone Delivered Cardiac Rehabilitation in Heart Failure

    • Intrinsic Frequency Assessment of Cardiac Function

Michael W. Fong, MD

Ajay S. Vaidya, MD & Aaron Wolfson, MD

  • Active projects:

    • UNOS (United Network of Organ Sharing) Registry Analyses

    • Heart Failure Clinical Trial Registry Analyses

    • DAPA-OHT: SGLT2 inhibitor in Heart Transplant Randomized Clinical Trial

    • Antibody Desensitization case series

    • Hemodynamics in Heart Failure trials

    • Cell Free DNA in Heart Transplant Clinical Registry Analyses

    • Artificial Intelligence Solutions in Heart Failure

  • Research Interest:

    • Clinical trials with novel heart failure therapeutics

    • Antibody desensitization strategies

    • Heart failure and transplant outcomes research

    • Non-invasive allograft rejection surveillance

    • Artificial Intelligence Solutions in Heart Failure

    • Diversity in Cardiovascular Training

  • Research Interest:

    • Prevention and treatment of heart disease among patients with cancer and amyloidosis

    • Strategies to reduce health care disparities among patients with end-stage heart failure being considered for advanced therapies

    • Novel approaches to expand the donor pool for heart transplantation

Maxine Stachel, MD

  • Active projects:

    • Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial of Integrated Management of Atrial Fibrillation in Women within the Los Angeles Department of Health Services

    • Application of Lung Ultrasound in Cardiovascular Stress Testing

    • Development of Cardiogenic Shock Registry (network of California public hospitals)

  • Research Interest:

    • Cardiac Critical Care

    • Structural Heart Disease

    • Point-of-Care Ultrasound – Applications in Critical Care

    • Echocardiography

  • Clinical Trials:

    • Atrial Fibrillation (Working with Dr. Enrique Ostrzega)

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Preventative Cardiology

  • Active projects:

    • Multiclip transcatheter Mitral valve repair and risk of stroke 

  • Research Interest:

    • Outcomes research in cardiovascular disease, using existing (secondary) data sources

    • Development and application of contemporary statistical methods in cardiovascular epidemiology

    • Patient‐centered outcomes: morbidity, mortality, quality of life in CVD

    • Preventive cardiology: risk factor modification, secondary prevention

    • Educational mentoring in clinical research methods (hypothesis generation, data management, analysis, presentation, publication)

    • Health services research: health care delivery, disparities, process improvement in cardiovascular care

Brandon Wiley, MD

Enrique Ostrzega, MD

Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiology

  • Active projects:

    • An Adaptive Phase 2/3 Multicenter, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled, Randomized, parallel, 3 Arm Study to Evaluate the Efficacy and Safety of DA-1229 (Evogliptin) in Patient’s Calcific Aortic Aalve Disease with Mild to Moderate Aortic Stenosis (EVOID-AS)

      • Research Opportunities: Currently looking for fellows and residents for subject recruitment.

        • (if interested please contact gretchen.heintze@med.usc.edu)

    • Percutaneous or Surgical Repair IN Mitral Prolapse And Regurgitation for >65Year-olds(PRIMARY)

    • Speckle Strain Imaging to Improve Early Identification of Left ventricular Dysfunction in Heart Transplant Patients who develop cardiac allograft vasculopathy

      • Research Opportunities: Can use fellow/resident for subject recruitment. (please contact gretchen.heintze@med.usc.edu)

David Brown, MD

  • Research Interest:

    • Approach and techniques for catheter ablation of persistent atrial fibrillation

    • High resolution mapping in complex atrial and ventricular arrhythmias

    • Improvement of efficacy and safety in RF energy delivery and biophysics of lesion assessment

    • New technology in device therapy in cardiac pacing (especially CRT) and defibrillation

    • Intracardiac echocardiography for real-time imaging in complex ablation procedures

Ivan Ho, MD

  • Research Interest:

    • Atrial Fibrillation

    • Peripheral Artery Disease

    • Cardiovascular Epidemiology

    • Inflammatory Biomarkers

  • Active projects:

    • Improved Myocardial Perfusion Assessment using High-Performance Low-Field MRI

    • Novel Identification of Myocardial Scar Tissue using Arterial Spin Labeling

    • Primary/Senior investigator on Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis Study projects

    • Primary investigator on Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study projects

    • Senior investigator on Vascular Quality Initiative Registry projects

    • Primary investigator on Cardiovascular Health Study projects

    • Primary investigator on UK Biobank projects

  • Clinical Trials:

    • HORIZON Study 

    • VICTORIAN-INITIATE Study 

    • VICTORIAN-2P Study 

    • AFFIRM(a) Study

  • Research Opportunities: Currently looking for students, residents and fellows for any of the projects listed above. (if interested please contact gretchen.heintze@med.usc.edu)

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  • Active projects:

    • Discovering The Electrical And Structural Substrate That Causes Persistent Atrial Fibrillation

    • A Role For Electrocardiograms in Aortic Stenosis Screening: A Prospective, Multi-Centered Trial

    • Left Atrial Low Voltage Area: A Comprehensive Marker for Atrial Fibrillation Progression and Stroke

      USC Atrial Fibrillation Registry

    • Real-AF (Real-World Experience of Catheter Ablation for the Treatment of Symptomatic Paroxysmal and PsAF (Using Novel Contact Force Technologies)

    • Stanford Presence – American Medical Association Collaboration

  • Research Interest:

    • Atrial Fibrillation Mapping and Mechanisms

    • Structure Function Relationships in Atrial Fibrillation

    • Clinical Skills Assessment in Medical Curricula

    • Healthcare Disparities in US IMGs

Junaid Zaman, MD

Parveen Garg, MD

  • Active projects:

    • Intergrated Management of Atrial Fibrillation in Women in an Underserved Safety-Net Health Care System (RCT actively enrolling patients)

  • Research Interest:

    • Cardiovascular Outcomes Disparities

    • Health System Optimization

Samuel Gordon, MD

Jerold S. Shinbane, MD

  • Active projects:

    • Advanced Cardiac Imaging Database

  • Research Interest:

    • Advanced Cardiac Imaging

    • Cardiac Electrophysiology

Jina Sohn, MD

Helga Van Herle, MD

  • Active Projects:

    • Diamond II study - clinical evaluation of the Diamondtemp catheter ablation system in treatment of persistent atrial fibrillation

    • Leadless II IDE study of leadless Abbott AVEIR pacemaker

    • BAT wire study - feasibility and use of a percutaneous implant of the Barostim neuro modulation therapy for advanced heart failure

Andrew Zadeh, MD

  • Research Interest:

    • Preventative Cardiology

    • Cardiovascular Disease in Women

    • Cardiac Evaluation of Solid Organ Transplant Candidates

    • Application of Information Technology in Medicine

    • Signal processing for Improvement of Echocardiographic imaging