School of Medicine


Showing 21-30 of 739 Results

  • Shipra Arya, MD SM FACS

    Shipra Arya, MD SM FACS

    Professor of Surgery (Vascular Surgery)

    BioShipra Arya, MD SM FACS is a Professor of Surgery at the Stanford University School of Medicine and section chief of vascular surgery at VA Palo Alto Healthcare System. She has a Master’s degree in epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health with focus on research methodology and cardiovascular epidemiology. She completed her General Surgery Residency at Creighton University Medical Center followed by a Vascular Surgery Fellowship at University of Michigan. She has been funded by American Heart Association (AHA), NIH/NIA GEMSSTAR grant, VA Palo Alto Center for Innovation and Implementation (Ci2i), and is currently funded by VA HSR&D for a multicenter stepped wedge cluster randomized clinical trial called “PAtient-centered mUltidiSciplinary Care for vEterans Undergoing Surgery (PAUSE) trial”. Her current work focuses on streamlining frailty evaluation, as well as implementation of patient and system level interventions to improve surgical quality and to provide high-value and patient centered care.

    She has multiple administrative roles in surgical quality improvement as Director of Surgical Quality at VAPAHCS; Center director for Stanford University in the Vascular Quality Initiative (VQI); and the Associate Medical Director of the Northern California region for VQI, which is the national registry database and patient safety organization for Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS). Her involvement in SVS VQI also extends to being a member of the steering committee of the Vascular Implant Surveillance and Interventional Outcomes Network (VISION) to improve the quality, safety and effectiveness of vascular care. She also serves as the President of the Surgical Outcomes Club, a national organization of surgical health services researchers, and chairs multiple national committees: VA surgeons committee for the SVS and Diversity and Inclusion Committee for the Association of VA surgeons.

  • Euan A. Ashley

    Euan A. Ashley

    Roger and Joelle Burnell Professor of Genomics and Precision Health, Arthur L. Bloomfield Professor of Medicine and Professor of Genetics, of Biomedical Data Science and, by courtesy, of Pathology

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsThe Ashley lab is focused on precision medicine. We develop methods for the interpretation of whole genome sequencing data to improve the diagnosis of genetic disease and to personalize the practice of medicine. At the wet bench, we take advantage of cell systems, transgenic models and microsurgical models of disease to prove causality in biological pathways and find targets for therapeutic development.

  • Ritu Asija

    Ritu Asija

    Clinical Professor, Pediatrics - Cardiology

    BioI specialize in providing cardiac critical care to infants, children and adults with congenital heart disease and heart failure. I am the Associate Director for the Pulmonary Artery Reconstruction Program at Stanford, helping to coordinate comprehensive multidisciplinary care for children with severe pulmonary artery abnormalities and right ventricular dysfunction. I was a Faculty Fellow at the Stanford Center for Biodesign in 2019-2020 and continue to work on development of new technologies for the unmet needs of pediatric patients. I have an interest in physician wellness and completed the Wellness Director course through the WellMD Center at Stanford.

  • Themistocles (Tim) Assimes

    Themistocles (Tim) Assimes

    Associate Professor of Medicine (Cardiovascular Medicine) and, by courtesy, of Epidemiology and Population Health

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsGenetic Epidemiology, Genetic Determinants of Complex Traits related to Cardiovasular Medicine, Coronary Artery Disease related pathway analyses and integrative genomics, Mendelian randomization studies, risk prediction for major adverse cardiovascular events, cardiovascular medicine related pharmacogenomics, ethnic differences in the determinants of Insulin Mediated Glucose Uptake, pharmacoepidemiology of cardiovascular drugs & outcomes

  • Jennifer Avise, MD

    Jennifer Avise, MD

    Member, Cardiovascular Institute

    BioDr. Avise is a board-certified vascular surgeon specializing in cutting edge treatments of vascular disease. She is a clinical assistant professor in the Department Surgery, Division of Vascular Surgery at Stanford University School of Medicine.

    She has helped to expand access to expert vascular surgery in the East Bay, establishing Stanford Health Care’s first vascular surgery practices at the medical center in Emeryville and at the Stanford Health Care – ValleyCare hospital in Pleasanton. Dr. Avise serves as the medical director of the Pleasanton vascular laboratory, an IAC accredited facility, where she advances developments in noninvasive testing to aid in early diagnosis of vascular disease.

    Her focus is on early detection and disease prevention, minimally invasive (endovascular) techniques, and complex open surgery. She treats a wide variety of conditions, including aortic aneurysm, limb salvage, varicose veins, peripheral vascular disease, carotid disease, complex wound care, and dialysis access.

  • David M. Axelrod, MD

    David M. Axelrod, MD

    Clinical Professor, Pediatrics - Cardiology

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsVirtual Reality Congenital Heart Disease experience: The Stanford Virtual Heart. Currently engaged with 19 academic medical centers across the globe using our Stanford Virtual Heart to educate students and trainees, and research our VR experience as a means for training and education. Also developing next generation modeling and image interaction with Stanford engineers and educators, to promote personalized surgical training in VR and advanced educational programs in congenital heart disease.

  • Leah Backhus

    Leah Backhus

    Thelma and Henry Doelger Professor of Cardiovascular Surgery

    BioLeah Backhus trained in general surgery at the University of Southern California and cardiothoracic surgery at the University of California Los Angeles. She practices at Stanford Hospital and is Chief of Thoracic Surgery at the VA Palo Alto. Her surgical practice consists of general thoracic surgery with special emphasis on thoracic oncology and minimally invasive surgical techniques. She also has special clinical expertise in adult chest wall surgery (including pectus excavated) and hyperthermic intrathoracic chemotherapy or HITHOC (used to treat mesothelioma and other pleural tumors). She is Co-Director of the Thoracic Surgery Clinical Research Program, and has grant funding through the Veterans Affairs Administration and NIH. Her current research interests are in imaging surveillance following treatment for lung cancer and cancer survivorship. She is a member of the National Lung Cancer Roundtable of the American Cancer Society and the Task Group on Health Equity. She also serves on the Board of Directors of the Society of Thoracic Surgeons. As an educator, Dr. Backhus is the Associate Program Director for the Thoracic Track Residency and is former Chair of the ACGME Residency Review Committee for Thoracic Surgery.

  • Nitish Badhwar

    Nitish Badhwar

    Clinical Professor, Medicine - Cardiovascular Medicine

    BioNitish Badhwar, MD is Professor of Medicine and Director of Cardiac Electrophysiology Training Program at Stanford University School of Medicine. Dr. Badhwar received his medical degree from Maulana Azad Medical College (University of Delhi, India). After completing his internal medicine training from New York Hospital of Queens (affiliated with Cornell Medical School), he worked as faculty in the Department of Medicine at Hospital of St. Raphael (Yale University School of Medicine). He completed Cardiac Electrophysiology training at UCSF with Dr. Scheinman. After being on faculty at UCSF for 15 years he recently joined the Arrhythmia Service at Stanford Hospital. He is a Fellow of American College of Cardiology and Heart Rhythm Society. He has been named best doctor in cardiac electrophysiology in San Francisco Magazine since 2015 (2015-2025). This is nominated by his peers. He is the recipient of Excellence in Teaching award by UCSF Academy of Medical Educators in 2015, ACC Distinguished Teacher Award in 2024 and Heart Rhythm Society Distinguished Teacher Award in 2026. He is an invited speaker at prestigious international meetings including Oriental Congress of Cardiology (OCC) in Shanghai, China; Cardiostim EHRA /Europace in Nice, France; Asia Pacific Heart Rhythm Society (APHRS) in Seoul, S Korea; American Heart Association Annual Scientific Session in New Orleans, LA and Indian Heart Rhythm Society in New Delhi, India.


    Clinical Interest: Dr. Badhwar's clinical interest is in complex catheter ablation procedures including mapping and ventricular tachycardia (VT), atrial fibrillation (AF) and supraventricular tachycardia (SVT) including junctional variants of SVT. He started the epicardial ablation program at UCSF and also worked with Dr. Randall Lee to perform the first percutaneous epicardial left atrial appendage (LAA) ligation in the Bay Area in patients with atrial fibrillation. He has also differentiated himself in the field of electrophysiology by performing hybrid procedures with CT surgeons in patients with AF and VT. He is also involved in device implantation including pacemakers, ICD and biventricular pacing for heart failure.

    Research Interest: Dr. Badhwar has published electrophysiologic characteristics of SVTs including atrial tachycardia arising from the coronary sinus musculature, para-hisian atrial tachycardia, left sided AVNRT, junctional tachycardia and nodofascicular tachycardia. He has also published on the use of nuclear medicine (ERNA) in assessing left ventricular dyssynchrony as well as optimal pacing sties in patients with heart failure requiring biventricular pacing. He has described the unique clinical characteristics of epicardial idiopathic VT arising from the cardiac crux and septal fascicular VT. He has also published clinical outcomes of combining LAA ligation with catheter ablation of atrial fibrillation (first in human percutaneous closed chested Maze procedure) and participated in multi-center randomized trials of hybrid AF ablation ( DEEP trial and aMAZE trial). He was part of the VINTAGE project that used novel technique for ablation of intramural deep septal VT.