Stacey Titus • June 28, 2023
HCMA Welcomes our newest Center of Excellence 
Stacey Titus

Allegheny Health Network HCM program is the HCMA’s newest Recognized Center of Excellence. AHN is a multi-disciplinary team of cardiovascular specialists trained in diagnosing and treating hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. The AHN team will provide patients with a comprehensive assessment and conduct a diagnostic test to determine the most appropriate therapy. Team members collaborate to provide patients with coordinated care, education, and support, including but not limited to heart failure specialists, cardiac surgeons, cardiac electrophysiologists, cardiac imagine specialists, interventional cardiologists, nurses, advanced practice providers, genetic counselors, dietitians rehabilitation specialists, high-risk obstetricians, and supportive care specialists. The HCM programs offer medical therapy, interventional therapy, such as alcohol septal ablation, and surgical therapy, such as septal myectomy. AHN also offers enrollment in clinical trials investigating new therapies for HCM. Program Director Pietro Bajona, MD, Ph.D. – Cardiac Surgeon trained at the Mayo Clinic and University of Toronto HCm programs and served as Surgical Director of the HCM Program at UTSW in Dallas, TX, before starting the HCM program at Allegheny General Hospital.

Program Director/Director of Cariac Surgery- Dr. Pietro Bajona

Co-Director/Advanced Heart Failure and Transplant- Dr. Craig Alpert

Cardiac Surgery – Dr. Stephen Bailey, MD

Interventional Cardiology – Dr. David Lasorda

Interventional Cardiology – Dr. Mithun Chavarthy

Advanced Cardiac Imaging (MRI) – Dr. Victor Farah

Advanced Cardiac Imaging (Echo) – Dr. Rachel Hughes-Doichev

Cardiac Electrophysiology – Dr. George Shaw

Pediatric Cardiology – Dr. Brian Feingold (UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh)

Nursing Team –  Jennifer Keely, DNP, & Kathleen Ridgeway, RN

Genetic – Kyla Morphy

Pediatric Cardiology – Dr. Brian Feingold (UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh)

Nutrition- Nonnie Toth

Gynecology & Family Planning – Dr. Diego Vasquez & Dr. Devon Ramaeker

Please visit for more information about Allegheny General Hosptial HCM Program –  Pittsburgh, PA please visit:  https://4hcm.org/directory/


For more information on all HCMA Recognized Centers of Excellence, please visit  https://4hcm.org/center-of-excellence/.

HCMA Blog

On a green background, a line drawing of a head that has complicated arrows pointing outwards
By Gordon Fox April 25, 2025
Part 2 of a series on making decisions in HCM. A key reason is that decision making is so difficult is that most decisions involve more than one risk.
Hypertrophic Obsctructive Cardiomyopathy
By Erica Friedman April 22, 2025
Bristol Myers Squibb announces that Camzyos has been approved for Obstructive Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy in Japan.
April 15, 2025
It is hard to believe the first quarter of 2025 is in the history books. In the space of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and thick heart muscle disorders, the distance between the promise and the delivery of a reality freed from burden of disease is closer than it has ever been, not only in the United States but throughout the world. Unfortunately, we are navigating through some challenging health policy times, which will impact a large percentage of those with the diseases we seek to serve. While we navigate these challenging waters together, we remain committed to ensuring safe, accessible, affordable healthcare while ensuring the rights of those with disabilities are maintained. Last month, I attended two large conferences - one held in Stockholm, Sweden the other Chicago, Illinois. The research communities worldwide are holding their breath, waiting to see how we will move forward, even as we continue to develop new therapies, treatments and, even potentially, cures. It has never been more important to keep research moving, as we are so close to so many amazing improvements in our ability to care for those with thick heart muscle disorders, including HCM in all its forms, Amyloidosis, Fabry’s disease, Danon disease, and RASopathies. There was amazing science presented at the American College of Cardiology, where we warmly welcomed new president, Dr. Christopher Kramer, the original director of the hypertrophic cardiomyopathy center at University of Virginia. We look forward to his leadership and wish him well in his challenging tasks ahead. Later this month we will be in Orlando, Florida - please register and join us for this wonderful Bighearted warrior tour in person with our friends at AdventHealth and the incomparable Dr. Marcos Hazday. I even understand that there's some carpooling being organized from the Tampa area. If you're interested, reach out to the office and we will connect you. Maybe, the most impactful thing that will happen in the month of April is that we will conduct our second visit to Capitol Hill. Our lead topic this year is something you have heard us talk about at many prior meetings of the HCMA and podcasts; the generic drug quality issue. We are proud to be partnering with David Light, Co-founder and President of Valisure, and retired Colonel Vic Suarez, to ask House and Senate members to support the inspection of all generic drugs purchased by the Department of Defense and the Veterans Administration and make results of these inspections open for public use. Secondly, we are seeking rational oversight of health insurance companies’ abuse of prior authorizations and step therapy requirements. These issues cost an estimated 1.3 billion dollars a year and provide nothing to keep a patient safer or a physician's office running more efficiently. Common sense tells us to not waste money where there is no return. Additionally, prior authorizations and step therapies can keep patients sicker longer, ultimately costing the healthcare system more money. Our briefing will educate Representatives to act in an informed manner when moving policies that impact us all. You can watch the video of our briefing from Wednesday, April 9th on Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/event/5043266 If you wish to get involved or more informed on any of the issues above, I encourage you to visit the website, 4hcm.org , or reach out to the office and the staff will be happy to assist you. On the day before I head out to Washington DC, I will leave you with this one thought - we have come a really long way in our understanding of HCM over the past 60 years. We have increased the lifespan of those with HCM, through collaborative research and implementation of best practices in an organized fashion throughout this country. We have worked so hard to end suffering for so many, and we are succeeding in our shared goal to outsmart hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and other thick heart muscle disorders. It is important to continue the research into all aspects of these diseases, including the biological, the clinical, and burden of disease measurements. System improvements, positive impact of timely diagnosis and treatment, and the value to society of all of these big hearts being here, will help keep their families whole. So we're off to DC to try to educate others about what it really means to live in our ecosystem. Best wishes, Lisa
More Posts