Timothy Oaks, MD, surgical director, and Vinay Thohan, MD, medical director.

The Advanced Cardiac Care and Transplant Program at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center is a comprehensive program for patients with cardiovascular conditions.

Wake Forest Baptist cardiologists, cardiothoracic surgeons, nurse specialists and researchers work as a team to address the full scope of heart problems. Working in state-of-the-art facilities, using some of the world’s most sophisticated technology, these experts are on the leading edge of diagnosis, treatment and discovery.

"Patients should be referred to the Heart Center’s program if they have a new onset of heart failure, do not respond to medication therapy, have 2 or more hospitalizations for heart failure within a year, or have a recent deterioration in cardiac function," said Vinay Thohan, MD, associate professor of cardiology and medical director of the program. “Quite often heart failure can be related to other conditions – kidney problems, anemia, diabetes, lung diseases – so we address them all. These patients may have medications working against each other.”

The multidisciplinary approach of the Heart Center means that other departments are often brought in, including surgery, nutrition, endocrinology, urology, radiology, or critical care. Extensive testing may be necessary.