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Welcome, everyone to Becker's
Healthcare podcast series.

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I'm Ryan Mohamed with Becker's Healthcare.

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I'm thrilled to have
with me today Dr. Avni,

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the core cardiologist and president of
Catholic Health Physician Partners. Dr.

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So nice to talk with
you today. How are you?

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I'm wonderful. How are you?

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Good, thank you so much.
Uh, well, to begin,

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would you mind introducing yourself and
telling us a bit about your background?

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Sure. Uh, again, Dr. Abni
Theor. Um, I am a cardiologist,

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general cardiologist by background,
um, trained, uh, mostly in Boston,

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at Harvard Medical School, mass
General and, and Boston Medical Center.

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And have been practicing now as a
clinical cardiologist in the New York, uh,

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long Island area for about 15 years.
Um, from an administrative side,

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I started my career, um, relatively
early. Um, in, in leadership.

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I initially, um, was, uh,

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a leader in cardiology and
my medical group and, uh,

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helped develop and build out
many cardiology practices.

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And in time I transitioned, uh,

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into overseeing other
specialties in primary care. Um,

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I've now been with Catholic Health, uh,

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here in Long Island in New York for about
five years, a little over five years.

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And, uh,

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currently in the physician as president
of Catholic Health Physician Partners

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Medical Group. And this is our employed
physician group, um, across, uh, Queens,

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Nassau on Long Island. I'm also a mom.
I have two kids, uh, both grown up now,

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um, and, uh, you know, have,
uh, a native Long Island.

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So I'm really happy to
be, uh, working out here,

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taking care of PA patients and helping
healthcare improve in, in my hometown.

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Yeah, absolutely. Thank you
so much for that background.

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And to begin with the real
questions of the podcast, um,

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the first thing I wanted to ask you is
what are the top three biggest issues in

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cardiology today?

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So I think, um, three key issues, um,

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or sort of challenges and opportunities
facing the, the cardiology space today.

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Um, number one I think
is, is really just, uh,

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the impact of cardiovascular
disease in our society.

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It's the top cause of death in the
United States. Um, still today,

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although there's a lot of programs,
treatments, uh, and awareness around this,

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it still remains the
leading cause of death. Um,

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and if we look back since
the 1950s when we had, uh,

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the beginning of major advances in, in
cardiac, uh, treatment and diagnosis,

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you know, initially we saw significant
declines in cardiovascular mortality,

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but in the last few years,
um, despite, you know,

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continued research advancement, um,

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and resources being poured into
cardiovascular disease improvement, um,

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we have seen some plateauing in
the improvement in mortality.

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So I think that's an interesting and
an important, uh, finding or trend.

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And I think, uh, one of the opportunities
or challenges for us here, uh,

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both in the United States and globally,

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is perhaps looking at the areas we focus
on in terms of diagnosing and managing

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cardiac illness, um, and perhaps, uh,

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switching some of our focus
towards prevention. Um,

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and also towards specific
therapies, whether there's, uh,

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drugs or other types of treatments that
have really strongly proven mortality

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impact. Um, so I think there
will be some shift in focus, um,

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to make sure that we continue to
see a decline, not a plateau or, uh,

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worse in, in the cardiovascular mortality
rates. So that's one key area, um,

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in my opinion, and I think perhaps one
of the most important ones. Um, secondly,

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I think we all know this and we're
always reading and hearing about this,

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the cost of healthcare is rising
in the United States and, uh,

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cardiac management, cardiac disease,
you know, contributes in the top 5%,

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um, for cost and especially
with our aging population,

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cardiovascular disease as
a significant focus area.

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So I think we do have to look at, um,
again, how we can bend that cost curve,

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um, specifically in, in cardiology.

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And I guess the third area is, um,
uh, access to care and, you know,

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especially through the pandemic.
Um, and otherwise since, you know,

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we've really been focused in healthcare
in general on improving access to care

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in particular, um, in the communities
where we see there are, you know,

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barriers to access where there are
socioeconomic and other disparities. Um,

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again, cardiovascular disease is
prevalent in these communities,

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and I think making sure that
all of our patients are,

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are provided equal access to care, uh,
we enhance, um, prevention strategies,

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we enhance early diagnosis,

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and we make sure that people have access
to the right treatments and the right

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engagement with their physicians
and other clinical care team is,

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is critically important in
cardiology. So I think, you know,

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those are my three areas really I think
for us to focus on in the coming, uh,

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year or two really is spending that, um,

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cost curve access to care and
focusing on how we can, um,

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shift our clinical focus
and our therapeutic focus
to making sure we're seeing

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some improvement in
cardiovascular mortality rates.

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Yeah, absolutely. And, uh,
talking about the future,

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the next thing I wanted to ask you is
how do you see heart care evolving over

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the next 18 months or so?

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Well, you know, it's interesting.

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I think all of healthcare has seen like
a real rise in in digital health and,

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and artificial intelligence.
I think across the board, um,

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as a cardiologist and somebody who's
always interested in what's coming down,

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uh, the pike, if you will, in cardiology,
there's been significant strides, um,

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made in digital health and ai, uh,

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both in terms of supporting our clinical
decision making as physicians and care

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teams, uh, helping us, uh, treat
patients and giving us, uh,

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good tech support as well as good data
support in making clinical decisions.

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I think, uh, some of the technological
advances as well as some of the, um,

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information that's driven to us, um,

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through artificial intelligence and
predictive modeling is very, very helpful.

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Um, additionally I think for patients,
digital health has become a big player,

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which it really wasn't,
um, some years ago.

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And patients really navigating their
own healthcare with digital tools, um,

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has become very prevalent now.

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And we see that a lot in our cardiac
patient population because they really are

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monitoring their own vital signs, their
own blood pressures, their weights, um,

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other metrics and parameters through, um,

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wearable or other kind of
easily portable digital devices.

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So I think in the next year
and a half or so, you know,

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AI and digital platforms and digital
health in general I think are gonna really

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impact how we practice cardiology both
as providers and how cardiac patients

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take care of themselves.

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Yes,

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I've definitely heard that repeatedly
over the last couple months about ai

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and that can definitely
be an exciting thing. Um,

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the next thing I wanted to ask you, uh,

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before we close is what are
you excited about today?

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And also what is making you nervous?

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So, you know,

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I'm excited about and also nervous
about some of the new weight loss and

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diabetic drugs that are recently
becoming very popular. Um, you know,

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everyone's heard of them, they're all
over the news. Ozempic, wego, Manjaro,

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there are others. Um, I think it's a
phenomenal pharmaceutical innovation. Um,

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I think there's a lot of patient interest
and, um, use now, uh, getting, um,

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more and more rampant.

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It's really helping people lose weight
and it's really helping our diabetic

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patients get those blood sugars down
and treat their diabetes effectively.

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So it's really exciting and I think
they're gonna be potentially big game

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changers in, um, making sure we keep
people at, at the right B m I and, um,

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really help them manage,
uh, a chronic disease,

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which is very important to
manage, which is diabetes.

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So on one hand it's
just super exciting, um,

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and the early results in terms
of how effective they are, uh,

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they're very good at controlling
diabetes and they've promoted significant

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weight loss relatively rapidly. I
think this is really exciting, um,

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early findings and,
um, generally speaking,

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patients are interested in them and are
are, you know, willing to go on them.

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So that's all good. And uh, you know,

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if they continue to be
as effective as they are,

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I think we'll see significant
improvements in metabolic syndrome, um,

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and a lot of the risk factors
that drive cardiovascular disease.

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So as a cardiologist, you know,

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anything could do on the front end to
prevent disease on the back end, you know,

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you know, that means we're treating
people better and earlier. So that's,

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that's the really exciting part. Um,

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I guess it would make me a little nervous
because we're using them pretty widely

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now and we don't know yet, like with
any new medication or treatment,

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what the potential side effects
will be. Um, but I think, you know,

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we will learn, I think they're being
monitored pretty carefully and um,

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hopefully there won't be any
significant side effects that, uh,

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really prevent our ability
to continue to, you know,

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utilize these medications appropriately.
So again, I think it's a great area.

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I think it's a very interesting
and evolving area. It
makes me very excited and,

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uh, and also always a little bit, um,
cautious. I guess that's what I would say.

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Absolutely. And thank you so much
for those final thoughts, doctor.

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This has been an amazing discussion.

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So I wanna thank you again for coming on
Becker's Healthcare and I look forward

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to connecting with you again soon.

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Thank you so much and
a pleasure to meet you.