In this conversation, we have the privilege of speaking with Dr. Denis Yusupov, a Cardiologist who specializes in Advanced Cardiac Imaging. Dr. Yusupov's passion and dedication to improving patient outcomes has led him to Sentara, where he integrates the latest in imaging technology with compassionate, team-based care. He shares with us his journey into medicine, the transformative role of advanced imaging in cardiology, and how this field is evolving to enable more precise treatments and better outcomes for patients.
My name is Dennis Yusupov. I am in the advanced cardiac imaging department of the cardiology department here at the heart hospital that's in Tara Norfolk General. So I'm interested in advanced cardiac imaging, uh cardiac MRI cardiac CT nuclear uh echo transesophageal echocardio, echocardiography, but also have a passion for, for preventative cardiology. I think as an image, a lot of times you have the opportunity to intervene before the procedures and uh you play a huge role in preventative cardiologist, especially with cardiac CT coronary calcium scores. And I think whatever we can do to prevent, you know, patients from needing the big surgeries and needing the big procedures uh is, is a big part of what we do as cardiologists. I was always very interested in science and actually uh an undergrad. I was an English major. I was always interested in like the story of people and the two kind of really blend nicely in medicine because you get the science aspect that's in medicine. But you really get to learn a lot about people and you know, they under your care and they give you so much uh of themselves to you. So I just felt like a really good fit. And then when I was in medical school, I was just always really interested in cardiology, the physiology, things kind of made more sense than some of the other uh since uh of other subspecialties. So ended up in cardiology, I grew up in the northeast and I wanted to stay in the east coast. But most importantly, I was really excited and charged by Sana's cutting edge. Um always being on the cutting edge of the field and cardiology and also the nature here is extremely beautiful. I love to go to the beach uh over to Virginia Beach and the Shenandoah mountains aren't too far away. So it's kind of a perfect place, uh very goldilocks place. There's really good medicine here and it's a really beautiful place to find yourself. I try to take a holistic approach and get an understanding of what the patient really wants and sees for themselves. I always start my visits with my patient with. So what do you think brings you here to me and not just what's written here in the electronic medical record and what your concerns about your health and how can we work together to kind of get you there? So I really do see it as a team approach um with the patient, they always have to play a big part in their own health and I can kind of tell them through my experience and my knowledge, what I think and what I see and um where I think, you know, their path may be going and with certain interventions where that particular path can go. Um And so I really like to work together with my patients. And then as far as imaging goes, I'm very systematic, I have like a way of reading every single image. I try to do it the exact same way every single time. So I don't miss anything. I always have a checklist. Uh whether it's CT MRI transesophageal echo or echo. Uh I try to be as extremely systematic about it as possible. Advanced imaging is so exciting. I mean, the amount of technology that's being poured into the uh into cardiac CT, cardiac MRI and uh and transesophageal echo and just regular echo is really astounding. I mean, if you think about the image quality that we were getting, you know, forget about 1015 years ago, but even just five years ago, how much has evolved with image quality with protocols with, you know, radiation reduction in cardiac CT, with the amount of 3d we're able to do on echo and transesophageal echo. It's just, it's really unbelievable. And I think it's allowed a lot of the structural world to do a lot of those percutaneous procedures that they do because the imaging allows them to do. So, it really helps with preprocedural planning. And I think we're diagnosing things at a much higher rate than we weren't before because we've just learned so much about them, like hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, amyloid. Uh So, it's extremely exciting.
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