Deborah Kwon, MD

Deborah Kwon, MD, is Director of Cardiac MRI and a staff cardiologist in the Section of Cardiovascular Imaging in the Robert and Suzanne Tomsich Department of Cardiovascular Medicine of the Sydell and Arnold Miller Family Heart, Vascular & Thoracic Institute. Her clinical interests include cardiac MRI and CT, ischemic and non-ischemic cardiomyopathy, heart valve disease, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, pericardial disease and women and heart disease.

She is an Associate Professor of Medicine at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University. She holds dual appointments in the departments of cardiovascular medicine and radiology.

Dr. Kwon is an expert in multimodality cardiovascular imaging, having achieved the highest level of proficiency in all imaging modalities, including cardiac MRI, cardiac CT, echocardiography. She is also the Director of Cardiac MRI Research and serves as the Core Lab director for NIH as well as industry sponsored trials.

Specialty Interests:  Heart Valve Disease, Thoracic Aortic Aneurysm, Women’s Cardiovascular Disease , Ischemic Heart Disease, Non-ischemic cardiomyopathy, Pericardial Disease, Cardiovascular Imaging, Computed Tomography (CT) Scan, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), Echocardiogram

Number of Procedures Performed: Each year, Dr. Kwon reads approximately 2000 echocardiogram (echo) studies, including transthoracic echo, transesophageal echo (TEE), dobutamine stress echo, and exercise stress echo. She also reads approximately 1,000 cardiac CTs, and 500 cardiac MRIs.

Success Rates: Cleveland Clinic is nationally and internationally renowned for the world’s best cardiovascular care. Success rates for specific procedures are available at: http://my.clevelandclinic.org/heart/about-heart-vascular-institute/treatment-outcomes.aspx

Education and Training: Dr. Kwon earned her medical degree from the University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, Mich. She completed her residency at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, followed by fellowships in cardiology and cardiovascular imaging at Cleveland Clinic. She was appointed to the staff in 2010.

Research, Publications and Speaking: Since 2002 Dr. Kwon has published numerous papers and book chapters and book in publications such as Circulation, Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC), Heart, American Journal of Cardiology and Internation Journal of Cardiology.. She also has presented at the American Heart Association and American College of Cardiology meetings every year since 2006.

A dedicated researcher, Dr. Kwon has earned numerous prestigious awards for her work dating back to her residency and fellowships, including first place in the 2008 Cleveland Clinic Cardiology Fellowship Research Competition. In 2009 she placed first in the Society for Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance Moderated Poster Competition and in 2010 won the Journal of the American College of Cardiology’s prestigious Young Author Achievement Award for Cardiovascular Imaging. She was also awarded the 2010 ACCF/GE Healthcare Cardiovascular Career Development Award for her research in the effect of gender and scar burden in severe ischemic cardiomyopathy.

She serves as a reviewer for multiple journals, including JAMA; Circulation; Journal of the American College of Cardiology; JACC Imaging; Circulation Imaging; Heart, American Journal of Cardiology; American Heart Journal, and the International Journal of Cardiology. Dr. Kwon has also served as a guest editor for the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

She has lectured nationally and internationally on various topics related to her specialty interests.

About Dr. Kwon: I believe that the physician and patient relationship is one of the most intimate relationships, and it is sometimes overwhelming to think of how much trust patient places in their physicians.  Therefore, I feel that is my greatest responsibility to do everything I can to accurately diagnose and provide the best treatment strategy to help patients improve their health and quality of life. I think that the field of cardiovascular imaging is one of the most exciting fields, as we have the ability to use the latest technology to identify and understand the reason for the patient’s cardiac disease.  We can then use this knowledge to optimize their treatment. Seeing a patient’s health and quality of life improve is truly one of the most rewarding and humbling experiences.

Leisure activities: Outside of work, Dr. Kwon enjoys spending time with her family, reading, running, and serving at her church.