Howard Z. Goldschmidt, MD

What are some of the specific conditions you treat?

Coronary artery disease, with emphasis on risk factor reduction to avoid the neeed for stents or bypass surgery;  atrial fibrillation; all other cardiac rhythm disorders, including diagnosis of palpitations; congestive heart failure,  hypertrophic and amyloid cardiomyopathy heart valve disease; heart murmurs; young adults with surgically corrected congenital heart disease; hypertension; diabetics with heart disease; heart disease related to cancer chemotherapy.

Procedures offered: pacemaker and defibrillator follow-up and programming;  coronary risk assessment and prevention;  syncope (passing out or fainting).

Describe some of your professional highlights.

After completing medical school at Columbia and cardiology training at Mount Sinai, I began cardiology practice at The Valley Hospital in 1988, the same year as the cardiac surgery program was opened.  The early years of my career were devoted to honing  my technical skills in cardiac catheterization, cardiac pacemakers, nuclear cardiology and cardiac  ultrasound, working in close collaboration with my cardiothoracic surgical colleagues.  I spent many hours in the cardiac operating room so that I would understand all the nuances of bypass surgery and valve replacement.  I was the first cardiologist at Valley  to perform transesophageal echocardiography and the first one to attain board certification in nuclear cardiology.

The latter years of my career have been focused on advancing  "patient centered care," a concept that includes effectively communicating with  patients, understanding their needs and coordinating decision making with their families.  My hard work, technical skills and problem-solving ability have lead to continuous growth of my practice over the most recent years.  As a result of this growth in my outpatient practice, I have needed to shift my working hours away from the hospital procedure suite to our outpatient office at the Luckow Heart Center.  Currently, my deepest procedural expertise  is in intraoperative transesophageal echocardiography, navigating the heart for my colleagues who are performing minimally invasive valve surgery. This experience informs the recommendations I make to my patients with heart valve disease.

What would you like patients to know about your approach to care?

I’m known for insightful evaluation of complicated patients with complex disorders, leading to diagnostic and therapeutic recommendations that are workable and safe.  I draw on my 25 years of experience performing  invasive procedures to impartially advise my patients on the best course of action when faced with the prospect of undergoing cardiac catheterization or pacemaker implantation. I try to use diagnostic testing judiciously to avoid unneeded radiation exposure to my patients.  I embrace new technology as soon as I am convinced of its value and safety.  I’m sensitive to the economic costs of diagnostic testing and prescription medication.

Due to the serious nature of some cardiac conditions, I strongly believe that rapidly reaching a diagnosis will lead to the best outcomes. This approach requires thorough inquiry at the time of initial evaluation.  Patients seeing me for their first visit may experience a significant wait while previous medical records and imaging studies are obtained and reviewed by me.  Likewise, once we start our initial visit, my goal is that patients do not leave the office until all of their questions have been answered and all of my questions have been answered.  Frequently, I will perform unscheduled stress testing or other procedures on a patient at the time of their initial evaluation, so that critical diagnoses are not delayed.