UCI Cardiology Chief Jagat Narula, MD, Named Medical Director

Jagat Narula, medical director

LONG BEACH, Calif. – Officials at Long Beach Memorial Medical Center (LBMMC) have named world-renowned researcher and cardiologist Jagat Narula, MD, PhD, FACC, FRCP, medical director of the Memorial Heart and Vascular Institute (MHVI), effective immediately. Narula will facilitate a new partnership between MHVI and the University of California, Irvine (UCI), School of Medicine, creating an academic-private partnership and a world-class cardiology center.

The Long Beach Memorial and UCI partnership will merge each institution’s strengths: Long Beach Memorial offers excellent practitioners, groundbreaking programs and a large number of patients. UCI offers a medical school, cardiology fellowship program and extensive clinical and basic research facilities. Narula will retain his role as Chief of the Cardiology Division at the UCI School of Medicine, ensuring the close collaboration between the two organizations.

“Dr. Narula brings impressive credentials to Long Beach Memorial and we are honored to have him join our team,” says Diana Hendel, chief executive officer of Long Beach Memorial Medical Center and Miller Children’s Hospital. “We look forward to the exciting partnership to further strengthen each institution by converging programs, education and research initiatives.”

Narula, known worldwide for his bench-to-bedside research in the prevention and reversal of heart failure, and prediction and prevention of heart attacks, has more than 700 publications and presentations to his credit; he has edited more than 20 books or journal supplements. He has been the editor and expert reviewer for numerous cardiology journals, and currently is the editor-in-chief of The Journal of the American College of Cardiology—Cardiovascular Imaging. He has been honored with numerous awards and has received research funding from the National Institutes of Health and other prestigious organizations.

“My goal is for the Institute to become the regional seat of cutting-edge cardiovascular care, education and research,” says Narula. “By forming an academic-private partnership with UCI, the Memorial Heart and Vascular Institute will take full advantage of new programs, patient population, physician expertise and research funding to become a world-class cardiology center.”

The Memorial Heart and Vascular Institute, ranked by the state in the top one percent of California’s 500 hospitals, includes three operating rooms designed specifically for cardiovascular surgery, recovery areas, 23 cardiac intensive care and step-down patient rooms, telemetry services, cardiac nuclear medicine, non-invasive procedure areas and catheterization laboratories. The Institute has dedicated programs in women’s heart health, rehabilitation, arrhythmia management, heart failure, heart attack, minimally invasive surgery with robotics and clinical research. More than 500 cardiac surgeries are performed annually at MHVI. For more information, visit www.memorialcare.org.

About UC Irvine School of Medicine - University of California, Irvine, is home to a medical school rich in history that spans more than 100 years. Ranked as one of the top 50 U.S. medical schools for research by U.S. News & World Report, UC Irvine School of Medicine is dedicated to advancing the knowledge and practice of medicine through scholarly research, physician education and the provision of high-quality medical care.