The Cardiovascular Research Institute of Vermont (CVRI) hosted a Medicine Grand Rounds lecture by CVRI Visiting Professor Mark Creager, M.D., president-elect of the American Heart Association, on Friday, November 7, 2014 in Davis Auditorium on Level 2 of Fletcher Allen’s Ambulatory Care Center. The presentation, titled “Peripheral Artery Disease: Clinical Insights and Contemporary Treatments to Preserve Life and Limb,” was jointly sponsored by the CVRI and University of Vermont Department of Medicine.

A professor of medicine in the Cardiovascular Division at Harvard Medical School and director of Vascular Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Mass., Creager is also a member of the American College of Cardiology and the Society for Vascular Medicine. An active AHA volunteer for over 25 years, he has served in leadership roles at the national and affiliate level and has received numerous awards and honors for his work, including the American Heart Association Council on Peripheral Vascular Disease Distinguished Achievement Award, the Vascular Disease Foundation President’s Award for Leadership, the Master of the Society for Vascular Medicine, and the Simon C. Fireman Scholar in Cardiovascular Medicine award at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Creager’s major research and clinical interest is in vascular medicine, specifically vascular regulatory mechanisms and the effect of treatment on patients with peripheral artery disease. His laboratory studies the effects of atherosclerosis and its risk factors including hypercholesterolemia, diabetes and hypertension on endothelial function in humans and also mechanisms that contribute to the pathophysiology of intermittent claudication in patients with peripheral artery disease. He has published extensively, and was the lead author of 2012’s Vascular Medicine, 2nd Edition: A Companion to Braunwald’s Heart Disease.

The lecture was open to all UVM and Fletcher Allen faculty and staff.