Cardiologist Marty Leon Transforms Personal Adversity to Create Pioneering Career (episode 1)

There is virtually no aspect of the cardiovascular health ecosystem that hasn’t been impacted by the work of Dr. Marty Leon, professor of medicine at Columbia University Irving Medical Center (CUIMC) and a legendary interventional cardiologist whose many roles and accomplishments have had an indelible effect on the practice of cardiology globally — and the medtech industry along with it.

Dr. Leon's dedication is reflected by the many hats he wears, including Director of Columbia Interventional Cardiovascular Care, Director of the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratories and member of the Executive Board of the Columbia Structural Heart & Valve Center. He is a practicing interventional cardiologist at New York-Presbyterian Hospital in New York City and the founder and Chairman Emeritus of the Cardiovascular Research Foundation.

Equally notable, Dr. Leon is the driving force behind the Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) conference, now in its 34th year. He has co-authored over 1,550 publications and been the principal investigator on more than 75 clinical trials, many of which have changed the practice of medicine.

In this episode, Fogarty Innovation CEO Andrew Cleeland had the pleasure of chatting with Dr. Leon to learn more about the factors that shaped his life and career.

Episode highlights:
00:00 - Introduction
01:48 - Dr. Leon's early life and influences
11:00 - A personal loss was the catalyst to transform the cardiology industry
15:56 - Attending Yale and why he pursued cardiology
19:07 - The impact of going to NIH after Yale
22:41 - Dr. Leon's vision for TCT, the industry's gold standard for live training of interventionalists around the world

Resources: