Gordon Blackburn, MD, is the Program Director of Cardiac Rehabilitation, Section of Preventive Cardiology and a Staff Member of the Cardiology Department, The Sydell and Arnold Miller Family Heart & Vascular Institute at Cleveland Clinic. He is certified as a Preventive/Rehabilitative Exercise Program Director by the American College of Sports Medicine. His specialty interests include cardiac rehabilitation, exercise physiology, cardiovascular risk factor modification and graded exercise testing.
Dr. Blackburn did his undergraduate work at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, graduating with bachelor degrees in both physical education and psychology. While an undergraduate, he received the Dalley Memorial Academic Scholarship. He did his graduate work as an exercise specialist at The Pennsylvania State University, followed by a PhD with a major in exercise physiology and a minor in psychology.
Prior to his 1984 appointment to Cleveland Clinic as Program Director of Cardiac Rehabilitation, Dr. Blackburn was assistant professor of physical education and coordinator of the Dr. Paul Schwann Human Performance Assessment Centre at the University of Regina in Saskatchewan, as well as a supervisor of the Cardiac Function Laboratory at Cleveland Clinic.
Dr. Blackburn has been a faculty lecturer in physical education at John Carroll University in Ohio, and the past associate editor of the medical newsletter, Heartline. He has received the Outstanding Service Award from the Canadian Heart Foundation and has been recognized by his alma mater, Pennsylvania State University, as an outstanding alumnus.
As a research investigator, Dr. Blackburn has focused his clinical studies on the effect of exercise for patients with heart failure, on lifestyle change and behavior modification for patients with coronary artery disease, and on the ways in which exercise can improve heart rate recovery, among many other clinical research studies. He has published articles and abstracts on his clinical research and his specialty interests in leading peer-reviewed publications including Circulation, Journal of the American College of Cardiology and Journal of Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation. Dr. Blackburn is the lead author of several chapters in medical textbooks on the role of exercise in coronary artery disease and in cardiac rehabilitation.
He has been an invited to present his findings from his clinical experience and research studies at nearly 75 national meetings as well as international conferences on rehabilitative medicine that took him to Turkey, Canada and Korea.
Dr. Blackburn is a Fellow of the American Association of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation, and he is a member of the American Heart Association, the American College of Sports Medicine, and the Ohio Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation Association.
Watch a video about Dr. Blackburn and cardiac rehabilitation.
