Stephen W. Waldo, MD

Stephen W. Waldo, MD, is a second-year fellow studying vascular diagnostics and intervention at the Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School (Boston, MA). A graduate of the University of California, San Diego, Dr. Waldo completed his medical training at Massachusetts General Hospital and general cardiology training at the University of California, San Francisco. He received the 2014 Herman K. “Chip” Gold, MD, MGH Young Investigator Award and serves as an ad hoc reviewer for multiple major cardiology journals. In addition, Dr. Waldo has been co-author of 20 published articles over the past decade. His postfellowship career plan is to pursue academic interventional cardiology and vascular medicine while continuing outcomes-based research in both of these areas.

Why did you decide to pursue interventional cardiology?

Interventional cardiology allows a physician to meet a critically ill patient and make a difference in their clinical course within a very short period of time, providing relief for the patient and immediate gratification for the treating clinician. I think that the relationship that you develop with a patient during that critical time is unique among the medical subspecialties and something that drew me to the field.

What has been your most meaningful clinical experience thus far?

I distinctly recall a young man with an unremarkable history that I met early in the course of my interventional cardiology training. An initial electrocardiogram demonstrated anterior ST elevations, and I recommended emergent coronary angiography. As I was describing the procedure to the patient in the emergency department, he became unresponsive and ventricular fibrillation was identified on the monitor. We successfully defibrillated the patient and brought him to our cardiac catheterization laboratory, where we recanalized a proximal occlusion of the LAD. The patient was asymptomatic immediately thereafter, less than 90 minutes after his arrest. I continue to receive photos of the patient and his family more than a year after this episode thanking our team for the assistance we provided. It is cases like these that remind me why I entered this profession.

What is the biggest challenge facing interventional cardiology fellows today?

The medical and interventional treatment of coronary artery disease is improving, perhaps contributing to an overall improvement in cardiovascular health. At the same time, this may lead to a decrease in coronary procedural volume during fellowship training, which could make it more challenging to achieve technical competency. I believe that increasing case complexity among the interventions that are performed, however, mitigates some of this challenge.

Who has had the biggest impact on your interventional cardiology career, and why?

I have had the privilege of learning from and working with several luminary figures throughout my training, all of whom have influenced my career. Kenneth Rosenfield, MD, and Douglas Drachman, MD, have both shown immense dedication to their patients—something that I hope to emulate in the future. Additionally, Robert Yeh, MD, MBA, and Peter Ganz, MD, have demonstrated the possibility of combining interventional cardiology with research aspirations—a career goal that I also have.

What is something that people might not know about you?

I take every opportunity to teach my children the importance of a thorough cardiovascular examination, even though the oldest has not yet turned 6.

What his fellowship director, Douglas Drachman, MD, says:

Dr. Waldo has been a spectacular member of our coronary and vascular interventional fellowship programs. He’s meticulous and supremely skilled in everything that he does, from clinical care to interventional technique and outcomes research. At the same time, he’s a remarkably thoughtful and empathetic clinician and colleague. He is beloved by patients, peers, and all of the members of the cath lab team. We all appreciate his extraordinary dedication, his unfailingly positive attitude, and his wry sense of humor! 

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