The History of Heart Failure
HECTOR O. VENTURA, MD
Section Head, Heart Failure/Transplantation
Chairman, Graduate Medical Education
Ochsner Heart and Vascular Institute
New Orleans, Louisiana
Hector Ventura is the Chairman for Graduate Medical Education and the Section Head of Heart Failure/Transplantation at the Ochsner Heart and Vascular Institute. He is also an Associate Professor of Medicine at Louisiana State University School of Medicine and a Professor of Medicine at Tulane University School of Medicine.
Dr. Ventura earned his medical degree from the National University School of Medicine in Buenos Aires, Argentina. After his residency at the Central Military Hospital, he completed his internship and residency at the Ochsner Heart and Vascular Institute in New Orleans. While at Ochsner, he was awarded fellowships in arterial hypertension and cardiovascular diseases. Additionally he completed a fellowship in heart failure and transplantation at Loyola University in Chicago, Illinois.
Although not lacking in professional responsibilities, Dr. Ventura has developed profound interest and devotion for the discipline of medical history. This is evidenced by the fact that he taught for three years a course entitled “History and Philosophy of Medicine” at Tulane University School of Medicine where he is the also Faculty Advisor for the History of Medicine Society. He is a member of the American Osler Society, a society dedicated to the knowledge of humanities and history of medicine. He has also written numerous articles and book chapters on the topic and feels that it is important to be familiar with history in order to understand the present and perhaps to predict the future. Dr. Ventura believes that teaching medical history might not only improve our understanding of current medical advances but could also promote future innovations.