Dr. Valentin Fuster receives 2013 SCCT Arthur S. Agatston Cardiovascular Disease Prevention Award

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.

Provided by The Mount Sinai Hospital