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About Us

The Division of Cardiology at UC Irvine’s School of Medicine is dedicated to the diagnosis, management and prevention of cardiovascular disease, a leading cause of death in the United States. Division faculty members offer outstanding tertiary and quaternary patient care, conduct leading-edge research and deliver specialized training for the next generation of cardiologists in Orange County and beyond.

Our faculty members are board-certified in Cardiovascular disease and other cardiology sub specialties. They are highly skilled in the diagnosis and management of the broad range of heart diseases. A number have been listed repeatedly in "The Best Doctors in America," "America's Top Physicians," “Top Doctors,” and "Orange County Physicians of Excellence."  These nationally and internationally recognized faculty members work collaboratively with UC Irvine Health’s cardiothoracic and vascular surgeons, each year treating thousands of patients, most of whom have complex medical conditions. They offer expert clinical care and training in:

Division faculty members also are involved in rigorous scientific studies at Orange County’s only university medical center. With funding from the National Institutes of Health and other prestigious institutions, division investigators are engaged in a range of advanced research that includes:

  • Neuro-regulation of cardiovascular function and alternative therapies for cardiovascular disease
  • Interventional cardiology and electrophysiology 
  • Identifying subjects at high risk of developing heart attacks
  • Strategies aimed at reversing coronary disease that can lead to heart failure and preventing the progression of disease
  • Molecular cardiology involving estrogen receptors and myocardial hypertrophy
  • Health policy research focused on diabetes, heart failure and the use of imaging resources

The division’s clinical researchers work at the Cardiovascular Center at UC Irvine Medical Center in Orange, the VA Long Beach Health System and the MemorialCare Heart and Vascular Institute in Long Beach, which enables them to develop larger clinical trials that serve a wide geographic community.

This consortium gives the physicians accepted into the division’s highly competitive three-year fellowship program the best and broadest training. Five to six fellows graduate each year from the division's accredited cardiovascular disease program. The division also offers a fourth year of fellowship training in interventional cardiology.

Faculty members in our heart disease prevention program have participated in numerous clinical trials and longitudinal studies of cardiac disease, producing excellent scholarly work as well as educating the community in methods for improving the early detection and prevention of heart attacks.

UCI Cardiology is devoted to healing individuals suffering from heart disease and we have received national recognition for our work in these areas.

UCI Health has earned The Joint Commission’s Gold Seal of Approval® and the American Heart Association’s Heart-Check mark for Advanced Certification in Heart Failure.

This certification is in place for two years and is only available to heart failure programs in Joint Commission-accredited acute care hospitals. Obtaining the certification requires success in three main areas: compliance with consensus-based standards that apply to clinical care; demonstrating an organized approach to performance management and improvement activities in the clinical arena; and effective use of evidence-based guidelines, including requirements set by The Joint Commission. Programs that demonstrate the use of scientific research to meet individualized patient needs also set the bar high for heart failure care nationally. UCI Cardiology is highlighted on the AHA’s quality map website to assist the general public with locating certified centers across the country.

Cardiologists in our nationally certified Advanced Heart Failure Program, the only one of its kind in Orange County, make use of these scientific advances, leading-edge diagnostics and noninvasive imaging to correct the underlying problems that contribute to heart disease.

The Division also has an ACGME-accredited fellowship program that includes clinical training at UC Irvine Medical Center, Long Beach Memorial Medical Center and the VA Long Beach Healthcare System. These settings offer our fellows, residents and medical students valuable experience in treating patients with a broad range of cardiac diseases.

Our fellows receive extensive experience in clinical nephrology, including one-on-one mentoring in clinical skill development during procedural rotations, inpatient CCU/consultation services and ambulatory rotations. Our training program provides extensive didactic core lectures, grand rounds, seminars and journal clubs.

The mission of the Division of Cardiology is to promote cardiovascular health through research, education, superb physician training and by delivering the best and most compassionate patient care.

We Are Greater Together


Here at UCI Department of Medicine, we highly value diversity. Diversity is core to our ability to offer compassionate and culturally competent care in a variety of practice settings, to patients from all walks of life, addressing simple to complex healthcare needs, while working with others who embrace a broad variety of backgrounds, experience, and perspectives. We remain committed to advancing diversity, in its broadest sense, in our programs through recruitment, training, retention and mentoring. This, we believe, is vital to our ability to continue to achieve excellence in serving our richly diverse community through our discover, teach, and heal mission. If this collaborative, respectful, and inclusive approach speaks to you, I look forward to your selection of UCI Department of Medicine as your training program of choice.

-Alpesh Amin, MD, MBA, MACP, SFHM