Welcome, everyone to Becker's Healthcare podcast series.
I'm Ryan Mohamed with Becker's Healthcare.
I'm thrilled to have with me today Dr. Avni,
the core cardiologist and president of Catholic Health Physician Partners. Dr.
So nice to talk with you today. How are you?
I'm wonderful. How are you?
Good, thank you so much. Uh, well, to begin,
would you mind introducing yourself and telling us a bit about your background?
Sure. Uh, again, Dr. Abni Theor. Um, I am a cardiologist,
general cardiologist by background, um, trained, uh, mostly in Boston,
at Harvard Medical School, mass General and, and Boston Medical Center.
And have been practicing now as a clinical cardiologist in the New York, uh,
long Island area for about 15 years. Um, from an administrative side,
I started my career, um, relatively early. Um, in, in leadership.
I initially, um, was, uh,
a leader in cardiology and my medical group and, uh,
helped develop and build out many cardiology practices.
And in time I transitioned, uh,
into overseeing other specialties in primary care. Um,
I've now been with Catholic Health, uh,
here in Long Island in New York for about five years, a little over five years.
And, uh,
currently in the physician as president of Catholic Health Physician Partners
Medical Group. And this is our employed physician group, um, across, uh, Queens,
Nassau on Long Island. I'm also a mom. I have two kids, uh, both grown up now,
um, and, uh, you know, have, uh, a native Long Island.
So I'm really happy to be, uh, working out here,
taking care of PA patients and helping healthcare improve in, in my hometown.
Yeah, absolutely. Thank you so much for that background.
And to begin with the real questions of the podcast, um,
the first thing I wanted to ask you is what are the top three biggest issues in
cardiology today?
So I think, um, three key issues, um,
or sort of challenges and opportunities facing the, the cardiology space today.
Um, number one I think is, is really just, uh,
the impact of cardiovascular disease in our society.
It's the top cause of death in the United States. Um, still today,
although there's a lot of programs, treatments, uh, and awareness around this,
it still remains the leading cause of death. Um,
and if we look back since the 1950s when we had, uh,
the beginning of major advances in, in cardiac, uh, treatment and diagnosis,
you know, initially we saw significant declines in cardiovascular mortality,
but in the last few years, um, despite, you know,
continued research advancement, um,
and resources being poured into cardiovascular disease improvement, um,
we have seen some plateauing in the improvement in mortality.
So I think that's an interesting and an important, uh, finding or trend.
And I think, uh, one of the opportunities or challenges for us here, uh,
both in the United States and globally,
is perhaps looking at the areas we focus on in terms of diagnosing and managing
cardiac illness, um, and perhaps, uh,
switching some of our focus towards prevention. Um,
and also towards specific therapies, whether there's, uh,
drugs or other types of treatments that have really strongly proven mortality
impact. Um, so I think there will be some shift in focus, um,
to make sure that we continue to see a decline, not a plateau or, uh,
worse in, in the cardiovascular mortality rates. So that's one key area, um,
in my opinion, and I think perhaps one of the most important ones. Um, secondly,
I think we all know this and we're always reading and hearing about this,
the cost of healthcare is rising in the United States and, uh,
cardiac management, cardiac disease, you know, contributes in the top 5%,
um, for cost and especially with our aging population,
cardiovascular disease as a significant focus area.
So I think we do have to look at, um, again, how we can bend that cost curve,
um, specifically in, in cardiology.
And I guess the third area is, um, uh, access to care and, you know,
especially through the pandemic. Um, and otherwise since, you know,
we've really been focused in healthcare in general on improving access to care
in particular, um, in the communities where we see there are, you know,
barriers to access where there are socioeconomic and other disparities. Um,
again, cardiovascular disease is prevalent in these communities,
and I think making sure that all of our patients are,
are provided equal access to care, uh, we enhance, um, prevention strategies,
we enhance early diagnosis,
and we make sure that people have access to the right treatments and the right
engagement with their physicians and other clinical care team is,
is critically important in cardiology. So I think, you know,
those are my three areas really I think for us to focus on in the coming, uh,
year or two really is spending that, um,
cost curve access to care and focusing on how we can, um,
shift our clinical focus and our therapeutic focus to making sure we're seeing
some improvement in cardiovascular mortality rates.
Yeah, absolutely. And, uh, talking about the future,
the next thing I wanted to ask you is how do you see heart care evolving over
the next 18 months or so?
Well, you know, it's interesting.
I think all of healthcare has seen like a real rise in in digital health and,
and artificial intelligence. I think across the board, um,
as a cardiologist and somebody who's always interested in what's coming down,
uh, the pike, if you will, in cardiology, there's been significant strides, um,
made in digital health and ai, uh,
both in terms of supporting our clinical decision making as physicians and care
teams, uh, helping us, uh, treat patients and giving us, uh,
good tech support as well as good data support in making clinical decisions.
I think, uh, some of the technological advances as well as some of the, um,
information that's driven to us, um,
through artificial intelligence and predictive modeling is very, very helpful.
Um, additionally I think for patients, digital health has become a big player,
which it really wasn't, um, some years ago.
And patients really navigating their own healthcare with digital tools, um,
has become very prevalent now.
And we see that a lot in our cardiac patient population because they really are
monitoring their own vital signs, their own blood pressures, their weights, um,
other metrics and parameters through, um,
wearable or other kind of easily portable digital devices.
So I think in the next year and a half or so, you know,
AI and digital platforms and digital health in general I think are gonna really
impact how we practice cardiology both as providers and how cardiac patients
take care of themselves.
Yes,
I've definitely heard that repeatedly over the last couple months about ai
and that can definitely be an exciting thing. Um,
the next thing I wanted to ask you, uh,
before we close is what are you excited about today?
And also what is making you nervous?
So, you know,
I'm excited about and also nervous about some of the new weight loss and
diabetic drugs that are recently becoming very popular. Um, you know,
everyone's heard of them, they're all over the news. Ozempic, wego, Manjaro,
there are others. Um, I think it's a phenomenal pharmaceutical innovation. Um,
I think there's a lot of patient interest and, um, use now, uh, getting, um,
more and more rampant.
It's really helping people lose weight and it's really helping our diabetic
patients get those blood sugars down and treat their diabetes effectively.
So it's really exciting and I think they're gonna be potentially big game
changers in, um, making sure we keep people at, at the right B m I and, um,
really help them manage, uh, a chronic disease,
which is very important to manage, which is diabetes.
So on one hand it's just super exciting, um,
and the early results in terms of how effective they are, uh,
they're very good at controlling diabetes and they've promoted significant
weight loss relatively rapidly. I think this is really exciting, um,
early findings and, um, generally speaking,
patients are interested in them and are are, you know, willing to go on them.
So that's all good. And uh, you know,
if they continue to be as effective as they are,
I think we'll see significant improvements in metabolic syndrome, um,
and a lot of the risk factors that drive cardiovascular disease.
So as a cardiologist, you know,
anything could do on the front end to prevent disease on the back end, you know,
you know, that means we're treating people better and earlier. So that's,
that's the really exciting part. Um,
I guess it would make me a little nervous because we're using them pretty widely
now and we don't know yet, like with any new medication or treatment,
what the potential side effects will be. Um, but I think, you know,
we will learn, I think they're being monitored pretty carefully and um,
hopefully there won't be any significant side effects that, uh,
really prevent our ability to continue to, you know,
utilize these medications appropriately. So again, I think it's a great area.
I think it's a very interesting and evolving area. It makes me very excited and,
uh, and also always a little bit, um, cautious. I guess that's what I would say.
Absolutely. And thank you so much for those final thoughts, doctor.
This has been an amazing discussion.
So I wanna thank you again for coming on Becker's Healthcare and I look forward
to connecting with you again soon.
Thank you so much and a pleasure to meet you.