Heart Institute Names New Co-Director
Jeffrey Towbin, MD, has been named director of Cardiology and co-director of the Heart Institute at Cincinnati Children's.
Dr. Towbin comes to Cincinnati Children's from Texas Children's Hospital and brings with him extensive experience as a clinician and researcher.
"Jeff Towbin had led a transformation in our understanding of the causes of arrhythmias and cardiomyopathy by his extensive investigations of the genetic mutations causing these disorders," says Arnold Strauss, MD, Rachford Professor and chair of pediatrics at the University of Cincinnati and director of the Cincinnati Children's Research Foundation. "His outstanding scientific accomplishments are combined with his clinical skills in cardiac transplantation and his leadership of one of the largest pediatric cardiology divisions in America. Jeff is uniquely qualified to co-direct our new Heart Institute with Jeff Robbins, PhD, and to grow our pediatric heart clinical services."
"My goal as co-director of the Heart Institute and director of Cardiology is to build the programs of the future that set the standard for cardiac research and patient care," says Dr. Towbin.
His focus will include heart failure and cardiomyopathies, transplant and cardiovascular genetics, as well as an adult congenital heart disease program to transition children to adult care. “Individuals with congenital heart disease are now living well into adulthood and need treatment or surgery that many adult cardiologists do not have extensive experience with,” he says. “Cincinnati Children's can address this unmet need."
Cincinnati Children's recently established the Heart Institute to transform outcomes for children with heart disease by fully integrating clinical and research capabilities. "The whole institute concept was the draw for me," says Dr. Towbin. "There's nothing else like it in pediatrics. The structure of the Heart Institute has the potential to build on what we already know on a basic level, to link the basic science to the clinical side.”
