Table of Contents
Medical School Unveils High-Tech Home
of Cardiovascular Centers
Weatherhead and Smith gifts enhance diagnosis, treatment and training in heart imaging
K. Lance Gould, M.D., left, professor of cardiology at the UT Medical School at Houston, shows the latest PET scanner to donors Sue and Lester Smith and Celia Weatherhead. Photos by Ester Fant
For cardiologist K. Lance Gould, M.D., director of the Weatherhead PET Center for Preventing and Reversing Atherosclerosis at The University of Texas Medical School at Houston, stopping heart disease in its tracks was a dream come true. This summer, Gould saw another dream come true – securing a new and improved space to develop cutting-edge technology and train the next generation of physicians to heal hearts.
Gould, along with faculty, staff and friends, assembled June 16 on the ground floor of Hermann Pavilion at Memorial Hermann Hospital for a reception to celebrate the opening of the Weatherhead PET Center for Preventing and Reversing Atherosclerosis and the new Lester Smith Cardiovascular Training Center.
Following a tour of the expanded Weatherhead PET Center, Gould gave an overview of the center’s 27-year history, citing medical advances that led up to the current non-invasive treatment program. He recalled the devastation of Tropical Storm Allison, which nearly destroyed the center in June 2001. The center’s cyclotron was ruined, but the positron emission tomography (PET) scanner, medical records and database were saved.
“We had just purchased and tested a second-generation PET scanner. And then it rained. The cyclotron building was completely flooded. Every single room was destroyed, even the roof,” said Gould, who holds the Martin Bucksbaum Distinguished University Chair in Heart Disease. “Then the waters went down, and we started over. We’ve literally come out from under the water and are looking up to the sky.”
The Weatherhead PET Center relocated from Jones Pavilion to its current 6,000-square-foot facility earlier this year. The center is home to the latest PET scanner, a combination PET/CT scanner and better analytical software.
The Lester Smith Cardiovascular Training Center will serve as a training ground for physicians to learn about PET imaging and preventing and reversing atherosclerosis.
The images are better, smoother and more accurate.
We can find what’s there before the arteriogram shows it,
and we can treat it,” Gould said.
The new technology is already improving the way Gould’s team looks at the heart.“The images are better, smoother and more accurate,” Gould said. “We can find what’s there before the arteriogram shows it, and we can treat it.”
In 2002, Gould and the Weatherhead PET Center launched the Healing Hearts Campaign to fund new generation PET and CT scanners with specialized software and a clinical research program. The campaign was fueled with a $4 million gift from The Weatherhead Foundation and a $1 million gift from the Lester and Sue Smith Foundation. With additional support from the philanthropic community, the campaign exceeded its $11 million goal in 2003.
“We are deeply grateful to Al Weatherhead and Lester Smith,” Gould said. “I will dedicate the next decade of my life to refining the technology and treatment for preventing and reversing coronary heart disease.”
PET namesake Al Weatherhead III, president of Cleveland, Ohio-based Weatherhead Industries, and his wife, Celia, helped establish the Weatherhead PET Center in 1999. Their generous gift helped create a distinguished chair in heart disease and expand the imaging and treatment capabilities of the PET Center.
Al Weatherhead III
After suffering a heart attack in 1989, Weatherhead was determined not to have another one. As a patient of Gould’s for the past 14 years, he continues to support Gould’s innovative approach to managing heart disease. He expressed his thanks to Gould for the life-saving treatment program.
“To be able to treat heart disease non-invasively is a great gift,” Weatherhead said. “I am proud to be a part of what you are doing as we walk together into the future. The rest of the world will follow behind us.”
Houston oil and gas businessman Lester Smith dedicated himself to Gould’s treatment program for reversing atherosclerosis and has become one of Gould’s biggest fans. Smith suffered a heart attack five years ago, despite his good health and active lifestyle. He and his wife, Sue, are award-winning ballroom dancers and dance sport advocates in the United States and England. They have been dancing competitively for a decade, winning a national competition in Latin dance.
“After my heart attack, I read Dr. Gould’s book and was greatly impressed with not only his skill, but also his passion and innovation for managing heart disease,” Smith said. “I immediately wanted to play a role in helping establish the PET Center. My wife, Sue, and I are delighted to further the important work undertaken by Dr. Gould and his colleagues.”
Smith’s largesse has served numerous philanthropic causes. A trustee of Baylor College of Medicine, he chairs the Prostate Cancer Research Initiative and the Partnership for Bladder Cancer Research at Baylor. He serves on the board of the Contemporary Arts Museum and Holocaust Museum Houston, and is a trustee of the Houston Museum of Natural Science. He was named recently to the national board of directors for the Prostate Cancer Foundation.
During the reception Gould expressed his appreciation of the Medical School’s partnership with Memorial Hermann Hospital to Steve Allen, M.D., chief executive officer of Memorial Hermann Children’s Hospital. He also thanked architects Richard Palumbo and Steve Curry of Curry Boudreaux Architects, designers of the facility, for making the center attractive and functional.
Gould expressed his thanks for his nine-member staff and their teamwork. The center’s staff worked out of Gould’s home until Memorial Hermann Hospital reopened in July after the Tropical Storm Allison flood. Center staff includes cardiologist Stefano Sdringola, M.D., assistant professor of medicine; registered nurses Mary Jane Hess, Mary Haynie and Karen Alloway; executive assistant Susan Hood; business director Ro Edens; senior staff assistant Darla Hicks; registered technician Dilip Patel; and database manager Rick Kirkeeide, Ph.D. “It’s people that make it work,” Gould said.
Gould began his research on coronary artery disease in 1969. He founded the PET Imaging Center in 1979 and served as director of the Division of Cardiology at the Medical School from 1979 to 1987.
Gould is the author of Coronary Artery Stenosis and Reversing Atherosclerosis, the first and only textbook on quantifying coronary artery narrowing, coronary blood flow and cardiac PET imaging. He also wrote Heal Your Heart, a comprehensive, user-friendly guide that includes a prevention and reversal plan for patients and their physicians.
By Jacqueline Preston, Development