Hector O Ventura, MD, is the Chairman, Graduate Medical Education Committee, as well as the Director, Cardiovascular Disease Training Program and Education at the Ochsner Clinic Foundation, New Orleans, Louisiana. He is also a Professor of Medicine at the Tulane University School of Medicine in New Orleans. EDUCATION AND BACKGROUND: After graduating from the National University of Buenos Aires School of Medicine in Argentina, Dr Ventura completed an internship and residency at the Central Military Hospital in Buenos Aires, followed by research fellowships in arterial hypertension and cardiovascular diseases, an internship, and an internal medicine residency at the Ochsner Medical Institutions in New Orleans. He was then named a fellow in heart failure/heart transplantation at the Loyola University School of Medicine in Chicago, Illinois, and served as Co-Director of the Advanced Heart Failure and Heart Transplant Program at Ochsner Medical Institutions until 1997. From 1997 to 2000, Dr Ventura served as Clinical Professor of Medicine, Director of Cardiovascular Research, and Co-Director of Advanced Heart Failure/Cardiac Transplantation at the Tulane University Medical Center in New Orleans. PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES: He is a fellow of the American College of Cardiology and serves as a member of the Cardiology Training & Workforce Committee. Dr Ventura is also Vice President of the Louisiana Chapter of the ACC. He has co-authored more than 235 articles, abstracts, and book chapters and is on the editorial board of the Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation, Revista Colombiana de Cardiologia, Congestive Heart Failure, American Journal of Cardiology, Journal of Cardiac Failure, Congestive Heart Failure, and Journal of the American College of Cardiology. Dr Ventura is Editor-in-Chief of Cardiosource en Espanol. MEMBERSHIPS AND AWARDS: Dr Ventura is also a member of numerous professional societies, including the American Heart Association, American Society of Transplant Physicians, International Society of Heart Transplantation and American Osler Society. He has been named Medical Historian of the Heart Failure Society of America. He recently became a member of the AHA Membership and Communications Committee of the Council on Clinical Cardiology. Among his awards and honors, he is listed in Best Doctors in America 1995 and received the Southern Medical Association Research Award in 1990. RESEARCH INTERESTS: A prolific lecturer, Dr Ventura's research includes studies on arterial hypertension following cardiac transplantation, the effect of digitalis on mortality in heart failure, and lipid profiles after cardiac transplantation.