ON TOPAZ, MD. FACC, FACP, FCCP
Born and educated in Israel, Professor On Topaz attended the Pre-Academic Center for Natural Sciences at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He then received his medical degree in 1979 from the Sackler School of Medicine at Tel-Aviv University and completed internal medicine and cardiology residency training. In 1983-1984 he pursued a research fellowship in Cardiovascular Pathology at the Jesse E. Edwards Cardiovascular Diseases Registry, department of Pathology, United Hospitals, St. Paul, University of Minnesota, Subsequently he attended adult Cardiology fellowship at the Jackson Memorial Hospital of the University of Miami in Florida [1986-1989]. This was followed by an Interventional Cardiology fellowship at the Medical College of Virginia, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia in 1989-1990. He then joined the faculty of the division of Cardiology, Case Western Reserve University Hospitals in Cleveland, Ohio [1990-1991] and the division of Cardiology of the University of Minnesota medical school, Minneapolis [1991-1993]. He returned to the MCV Campus of VCU as faculty in September 1993 with a rank of Associate Professor of Medicine (cardiology). He has served since then as the director of Interventional Cardiology at the McGuire Veterans Affairs Medical Center. In 2002 he received from the VCU School of Medicine the rank of full Professor of Medicine and in 2003 received an additional full Professorship in Pathology.
Professor Topaz’s research interests include Cardiovascular Pathology and laser tissue interaction in the cardiovascular system with a specific focus on laser induced thrombolysis in acute myocardial infarction. He is the North American editor-in-chief of the highly respected journal, Laser in Medical Sciences, which is the official publication of the European Laser Association. He is a member of the editorial board of ten peer-reviewed medical journals. To date he has authored and published more than 100 papers in peer-reviewed journals, as well as 50 abstracts and ten book chapters. Among these publications is the chapter on Laser in four consecutive editions of the prestigious Textbook of Interventional Cardiology, (Eric Topol M.D., Editor, W.B. Saunders Publishers). He has also made multiple presentations and invited lectures around the world on various topics related to percutaneous revascularization, including percutaneous thrombectomy devices and techniques in acute myocardial infarction, acute coronary syndromes and peripheral vascular diseases. He serves as faculty, chairperson and presenter on the major interventional cardiology meetings.
In addition to a 15-year history of securing research grant funding from the private sector, Professor Topaz won several grant awards including a National Institutes of Health National Research Service Award grant in 1988-1989 for his research into invasive evaluation of survivors of sudden cardiac death. In 1990, he won the American College of Cardiology’s Winthrop Interventional Cardiology Fellow Award for outstanding contributions to the field of interventional cardiology. Professor Topaz is a member of Special Study Sections and a Scientific Review Group of the National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health, Division of Research Grants.
In addition to his world-renowned research on lasers and their clinical applications in adults with acute myocardial infarction and ischemic coronary syndromes as well as in children with congenital heart disease, Professor Topaz is an active clinician, specializing in the cardiac catheterization suites with utilization of coronary interventions, including angioplasty, directional and rotational atherectomy, aspiration devices, transluminal extraction atherectomy, X-Sizer thrombectomy, stents and various laser devices. He is a fellow of the American College of Cardiology, the American College of Chest Physicians, the American College of Angiology and the American College of Physicians. Professor Topaz also serves as a member of the admission committee of the VCU School of Medicine, the Laser Safety Committee of the American Society for Laser Medicine and Surgery and the International Technical Working Group on Fiber Optics of the Society for Optical Engineering.
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