Division of Cardiovascular Diseases:

Advanced Heart Failure and Recovery Program

The Scripps Advanced Heart Failure, Mechanical Circulatory Support and Pulmonary Hypertension program consists of board-certified advanced heart failure/transplant cardiologists knowledgeable in all aspects of heart failure, cardiomyopathies and cardiac transplantation. The Scripps Heart Failure program was founded in 2005 by Dr. J. Thomas Heywood and has grown considerably in the past decade, with more than 2500 patients seen in the Heart Failure clinic annually.

The Scripps Heart Failure program focuses on heart recovery with an emphasis on providing patient-centric, high quality inpatient and outpatient care. By focusing on best practices and quality metrics, Scripps Clinic physicians provide patients with the best possible outcomes. These metrics include hospital readmission rates significantly lower than the national average, excellent immediate and long-term survival rates with LVAD therapy and improved quality of life and outcomes in patients implanted with an ambulatory pulmonary artery sensor.

Our Heart Failure cardiologists work closely with Interventional Cardiologists, Cardiothoracic surgeons and Cardiac Electrophysiologists located on the same campus in a multi-disciplinary approach. This enables the team to provide access to procedures such as coronary stenting, surgical and transcatheter mitral, tricuspid and aortic valve replacement, transcatheter atrial and ventricular septal closure, cardiac gene therapy, left and right ventricular assist devices (VADs) and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO).

Areas of particular interest and expertise are noted below:

J. Thomas Heywood, MD

  • Heart failure medical therapies
  • Hemodynamics
  • Pulmonary hypertension
  • Renal dysfunction in heart failure
  • Implanted heart failure monitors
  • Mechanical circulatory support devices
  • Cardiac Amyloidosis
  • Cardio-Oncology

Rajeev C. Mohan, MD

  • Advanced Heart Failure Therapies
  • Heart Transplant Care
  • LVAD Therapy
  • Mechanical circulatory support devices and cardiogenic shock
  • Inter-atrial shunt devices
  • Pulmonary Hypertension
  • Cardiac Amyloidosis
  • Cardio-Oncology

Ajay V. Srivastava, MD

  • Heart failure systems of care/population health
  • Heart rhythm devices in heart failure
  • Cardiogenic shock/circulatory support devices
  • Cardiac Amyloidosis
  • Cardio-Oncology
  • Cardiac sarcoidosis

Rola Khedraki, MD

Featured Services

  • Heart Failure and Pulmonary Arterial and Venous Hypertension Clinic

  • Cardiac Amyloid and Cardio-Oncology Clinic

  • Cardiac Transplantation Clinic

  • Multi- Disciplinary Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy Clinic

  • Acute Mechanical Circulatory Support and Cardiogenic Shock Program

  • Cardiac Intensive Care Unit and Inpatient Service (inpatient)

  • Left Ventricular Assist Device (LVAD) Program (inpatient)

  • Severe heart failure

  • Cardiomyopathy

  • Myocarditis

  • Arrhythmias

  • Valvular heart disease

  • Concomitant coronary artery diseases (CAD)

Recognitions & Awards

  • Dr. Heywood has been named one of San Diego’s Top Cardiologists and was formerly the Director of the Cardiac Transplant Program at Loma Linda University Medical Center

  • Dr. Mohan received the Heart Failure Society of America Travel Award and Teacher of the Year Award for fellows at Scripps Clinic

  • Dr. Srivastava has won numerous recognitions, including: International Society of Heart and Lung Transplantation Travel Award; Young Investigator Award Finalist- American Society of Nuclear Cardiology; Feasibility Research Award- American Society of Nuclear Cardiology; and Teacher of the Year award from Scripps Clinic

  • Co-founding and participating in numerous well-regarded cardiology forums including the Scripps Heart Failure and Arrhythmia Symposiums, The Scripps Cardiomyopathy and Cardio-Oncology Conference and the Scripps Cardiogenic Shock and Resuscitation Symposium

  • Our physicians have authored chapters in the leading textbooks on the subjects of Heart Failure and Cardiac Transplantation, including: The Cardiorenal Syndrome; Color Atlas of Cardiovascular Disease; Mechanical Circulatory Support: A Companion to Braunwald’s Heart Disease; and Algorithms in Heart Failure

Scripps Clinic Heart Failure cardiologists play an integral role in educating the cardiology fellows as well as internal medicine residents. In addition, in 2016, an ACGME accredited Advanced Heart Failure and Transplantation fellowship was started with 1 fellow per year. Physicians from the Heart Failure program are highly regarded teachers and participate in courses across the country educating others in the field.

For more information or to apply, please visit the Graduate Medical Education page.

  • Ambulatory Pulmonary Artery Sensor guided management in patients with elevated NT-BNP (GUIDE-HF)
  • Technologies for non-invasive measurement of cardiac output
    Improving diagnostic accuracy and management of patients with suspected heart failure in Emergency Departments (Scripps-Heart Failure ED project)
  • Transcatheter mitral valve replacement (TMVR). Comparing transcatheter implantation of the INTREPID mitral valve compared to traditional open-heart surgery (the APOLLO trial)
  • Transcatheter tricuspid valve repair. Treating tricuspid regurgitation percutaneously using the TriClip device in patients instead of open-heart surgery (the TRILUMINATE trial)
  • Implantation of a transcatheter inter-atrial shunt device (CORVIA, V-WAVE) to improve symptoms and outcomes in patients with heart failure (REDUCE LAP-HF and RELIEVE-HF trials)
SEE ALL SCMG RESEARCH