As the engine room of the human body, the heart’s steady beating is crucial to supporting countless bodily functions — including pumping blood through our circulatory highways and removing dangerous waste from our system. With 2,300 people dying daily from heart disease, the importance of keeping the heart healthy is without question.
Tulane University School of Medicine's Section of Cardiology is at the forefront of heart and vascular treatment and research around the nation. As part of an academic medical center, Tulane Cardiology is uniquely positioned to provide the latest in leading-edge procedures to improve patient outcomes — often before they’re available to patients throughout the rest of the country. Known as a hub for exceptionally skilled and experienced physicians, the vast Tulane research portfolio equips doctors to treat practically any heart or vascular condition - in addition to training peers across the United States in those complex procedures.
Leading Tulane Cardiology is Jose M. Wiley, MD, MPH, FACC, FACP, FSCAI, Professor of Medicine and Section Chief, whose extensive experience as a cardiologist, clinician and medical researcher spans 25 years. Originally from Puerto Rico, Dr. Wiley’s impressive medical career is rooted in the passing of his father, who he lost to sudden cardiac death, and his admiration for his mother, also a physician. After a two-year stint with the U.S. Army Reserve, Wiley’s budding love for cardiology brought him to Tulane in 1996 where he completed a residency in internal medicine followed by fellowships in cardiology and interventional cardiology.
“As a cardiology fellow, I had the privilege of working with the late Dr. Gerald Berenson, the father of the world-renowned Bogalusa Heart Study,” said Wiley. “I learned cardiovascular epidemiology and understood that coronary artery disease was not a disease of the elder, but begins in early childhood — early prevention is key to fighting coronary artery disease.”
Over the years, Wiley’s passion for heart disease awareness, prevention and treatment took him across not just the United States, but the world. Among these he was a physician and researcher at St. Alexius Medical Center in Bismarck, North Dakota; full-time Faculty of Medicine-Cardiology and Radiology at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City; served in multiple directorial roles at Mount Sinai and its affiliated hospitals; and taught extensively at Montefiore Medical Center-Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx.
Amidst an accomplished medical career, Wiley also served in combat as an army physician in Iraq and earned a Master of Public Health from Columbia University School of Public Health in New York. But even more than his incredible career accomplishments, Wiley’s patients discover his lasting motivation to help others and save lives. This commitment is clearly evidenced by a nonprofit he personally founded.
Dr. Wiley working with students during the Kids Save Lives Kosovo 2022 Mission
“I developed the Gift Project for Global Cardiovascular Health (GIVE), a not-for-profit organization that aims to improve global cardiovascular health by fostering partnerships among major academic medical centers, doctors, healthcare practitioners and leaders, businesses, governments, NGOs, and private citizens,” he explains. GIVE’s latest project, Kids Save Lives-Kosovo 2022, sent a diverse team of highly trained healthcare professionals and medical students to regions around Kosovo, providing CPR and AED usage training to 400 high school students.
In 2023, Wiley will head Tulane Cardiology‘s expansion of operations to serve East Jefferson Hospital with an enhanced cardiometabolic center of excellence, a cardiac shock program, and an advanced heart failure and cardiac transplantation program, among other medical advances.
