Cardiologists at the California Heart Center, who developed one of the largest U.S. heart transplant programs, are moving from the University of California, Los Angeles to assume leadership roles at the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute. The group, which will remain in private practice, will also become part of the Cedars-Sinai Medical Care Foundation.

The group is led by Jon Kobashigawa, MD, a past president of the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation. Kobashigawa leads a number of major multi-national clinical research studies.

At the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute, Kobashigawa will serve as director of heart transplantation, director of advanced heart disease and as the institute’s associate director for clinical affairs.

Other physicians in the California Heart Center also will have roles at Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute, such as:

• Jaime Moriguchi, MD, medical director, mechanical circulatory support program;
• Michele Hamilton, MD, director of the heart failure program;
• Antoine Hage, MD, director of solid organ transplant cardiology;
• Jignesh Patel, MD, PhD, co-medical director of the heart transplant program; an
• Michelle Kittleson, MD, PhD, director of post-graduate education in heart failure and transplantation.

An additional member of the group, Babak Azarbal, MD, practices interventional cardiology with a focus on heart failure patients. Azarbal was chief resident during his internal medicine training at Cedars-Sinai.