LAS VEGAS – The Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (SCAI) presented its Master Interventionalists of SCAI (MSCAI) designations during the MSCAI Ceremony at the SCAI 2019 Scientific Sessions in Las Vegas, Nevada. The MSCAI designation is awarded to individuals who have demonstrated excellence in invasive/interventional cardiology over the course of their career and for their commitment to the highest levels of clinical care, innovation, publication and teaching.

This year’s MSCAI designations were awarded to the following group of outstanding interventionalists:

Alice K. Jacobs, MD, MSCAI

Dr. Jacobs is a Professor of Medicine at Boston University School of Medicine and served as the Director of the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratories and Interventional Cardiology for 20 years until 2011. She has led the American Heart Association’s Mission: Lifeline, a community-based, national initiative to develop systems of care for ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) patients and to increase the number of patients with timely access to primary percutaneous coronary intervention.  Mission: Lifeline has now expanded to include Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest and Stroke systems of care.  She is currently Vice Chair for Clinical Affairs in the Department of Medicine at Boston University Medical Center and maintains an active clinical practice. 

Cindy L. Grines, MD, MSCAI

Cindy Grines, MD is a renowned researcher who pioneered primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) for heart attacks. She has a long history of research, publications and clinical trial design with more than 400 publications, numerous book chapters and review chapters. Dr. Grines serves on the editorial boards of several major journals, nationally and internationally, and she has co-edited several medical handbooks. She is editor-in-chief of the Journal of Interventional Cardiology.

Evan Michael Zahn, MD, MSCAI

Dr. Zhan is a professor of Pediatrics and Director of the Guerin Family Congenital Heart Program in the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. He is a distinguished researcher in congenital interventional cardiology and has participated as both a site and national P.I. in numerous device trials, which have which resulted in FDA approval of new devices for CHD patients in the United States. In 2007 he performed the world’s first transcatheter tricuspid valve implant and in 2018 the world’s first implant of the Altera pre-stent and Sapien 3. In addition to traveling abroad for speaking, proctoring and teaching, Dr. Zahn is heavily involved in medical mission work providing interventional procedures for children in underprivileged countries.

Frank Ing, MD, MSCAI

Dr. Ing is a Professor of Pediatrics, Chief and Co-director of the Pediatric Heart Center at UC Davis Children’s Hospital. His clinical and research interests are primarily in the development of transcatheter techniques, delivery systems, and cardiovascular devices to treat congenital heart disease from the fetus to the elderly. In addition to clinical trials and outcome studies, he has conducted large animal (acute and survival) studies and collaborated with industry and the FDA in studies related to therapeutic catheterizations for CHD. Dr. Ing understands the critical importance of effective teaching and mentoring in an academic career. While providing ongoing career mentoring to medical students, residents and fellows each year, he has also extended his teaching to national and international trainees and colleagues.

Larry Latson, MD, MSCAI

Dr. Latson is Medical Director of the Congenital Cardiovascular Catheterization Laboratory at Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital/ Memorial Healthcare System in Hollywood, Florida. He was among the first group of cardiologists to achieve Board Certification in ACHD, and is Co-Director of the ACHD Program. Dr. Latson participated in the very first balloon valvuloplasty and transcatheter PDA closure procedures at Baylor/ Texas Children’s Hospital. He also served as Chairman of Pediatric Cardiology and Medical Director of the Center for Pediatric and Congenital Heart Disease at the Cleveland Clinic and developed one of the first formal programs for advanced training in catheter intervention for CHD in the US.

Robert D. Safian, MD, MSCAI

Dr. Safian is the Founder and Director of the Center for Innovation and Research in Cardiovascular Diseases (CIRC) at Beaumont Health, and is the Lucia Zurkowski Endowed Chair for CIRC. He is Professor of Medicine at Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine and the Director of the Fellowship Training Program in Interventional Cardiology at William Beaumont Hospital. Dr. Safian’s entire career has been in academic medicine, first as Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard and Associate Director of the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory at Beth Israel Hospital. After moving to Beaumont, Dr. Safian was the Director of Interventional Cardiology and the Director of Vascular Medicine at William Beaumont Hospital.

Spencer B. King III, MD, MSCAI

A pioneer in cardiac catheterization, coronary arteriography and interventional cardiology, Dr. Spencer King III was co-developer of the multi-purpose technique of coronary arteriography and has directed invasive and interventional cardiology training for more than 150 cardiology fellows. In 1972, he became the first Director of the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory of Emory University Hospital and in 1980 recruited Andreas Gruentzig to begin the interventional cardiology program. Dr. King was President of the American College of Cardiology (1998-1999), President of the Society for Cardiac Angiography and Interventions (1991-1992) and served as the first Chair of the Interventional Cardiology Boards of the American Board of Internal Medicine (1997-2007).

Steven J Yakubov, MD, MSCAI

Steven J. Yakubov, MD is the John H. McConnell Chair of Advanced Structural Heart Disease and System Chief of Structural Heart Disease at Riverside Methodist Hospitals and OhioHealth. He also serves as the Cardiovascular Medical Director of the OhioHealth Research Foundation. Dr. Yakuboy has participated in many landmark clinical trials in interventional cardiology and structural heart disease. He participated as a principal investigator and steering committee member of many of these trials also. Along with his colleagues in clinical practice, he has been instrumental in advancing the interventional cardiology and structural heart programs at Riverside Methodist Hospital that have been widely recognized.