St. Luke’s outcomes researcher John Spertus, M.D., recognized for leadership and contributions to field of cardiology, health care quality
KANSAS CITY, Mo., May 16, 2013 — /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Cardiologist John Spertus, M.D., M.P.H., Medical Director of Outcomes Research at Saint Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute and the Lauer/Missouri Endowed Chair and Professor of Medicine at the University of Missouri – Kansas City has been named the recipient of the American Heart Association’s Council on Quality of Care and Outcomes Research (QCOR) Distinguished Achievement Award for contributions to the field. He was presented the award on May 15 at the annual QCOR council conference in Baltimore, Md.
“Dr. Spertus is extremely deserving of this recognition because of his groundbreaking work in cardiovascular outcomes research, health status assessment, and quality improvement,” said David J. Cohen, M.D., director of Cardiovascular Research for Saint Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute. “His contributions and leadership in cardiovascular research have had a profound effect on the practice of medicine, not only at Saint Luke’s, but around the world.”
Dr. Spertus’ research focuses on methods for assessing patients’ health outcomes, measuring
health care quality, and the use of information technology to guide medical decision-making so that treatment can be safer, more cost-effective, evidence-based, and patient-centered. He developed the Seattle Angina Questionnaire and the Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire, both of which have been translated into over 50 languages and are recognized as the gold standards for measuring patients’ symptoms, function, and quality of life in coronary artery disease and heart failure.
Most recently, Dr. Spertus has extended his translational research to illuminate the prognostic significance of genetic and other biomarkers on cardiovascular outcomes. Through his leadership, Saint Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute was one of four recipients of an American Heart Association Outcomes Research Center designation, an extremely competitive award and more recently, the recipient of a highly prestigious T-32 Training Grant in Cardiovascular Outcomes Research from the National Institutes of Health.
He is a graduate of University of California – San Francisco Medical School and completed
his internal medicine, cardiology, and health services training at the University of Washington. He has served on numerous national committees for the American College of Cardiology, American Heart Association, American Medical Association, National Quality Forum, Medicare, and United Healthcare. His research activities led to his induction into the American Society of Clinical Investigation in 2006. He also founded the Cardiovascular Outcomes Research Consortium and CV Outcomes, a non-profit corporation dedicated to advancing health care quality and outcomes research in cardiovascular disease and Health Outcomes Sciences, a biotechnology start-up to support the implementation of his research throughout the country. Dr. Spertus and his collaborators have published over 350 peer-reviewed articles.