Clinical Excellence, Collaboration & Community Drive Cardiovascular Care at St. Clair

By Andrew Wilson

During a first visit with a cardiologist, patients may feel they are putting their heart health in the hands of a single person – their doctor. But at St. Clair Health, there is always a team of expert physicians and healthcare professionals ready to provide the best possible care.

“We have assembled a team of truly talented physicians and staff that work together as a collaborative and freely communicating team to step in when people in our community face cardiovascular challenges,” said Andy Kiser, M.D., physician-in-chief of Cardiovascular Services at St. Clair Health. He also notes that good heart care begins with people themselves taking care of their hearts before there is a crisis.

“We can’t control who our parents are, but we can try to adjust the environment our body experiences to manipulate the genetic risks for cardiovascular disease,” he said. “I recommend the usual to reduce risk: no smoking, limiting alcohol, weight management with regular exercise, blood pressure management, diabetes management, and cholesterol management.

He adds, “knowing we have an older population of people in the South Hills, I also encourage my patients to walk a lot—at least a good walk three times each day. This maintains good cardiovascular fitness, regular bowel function, and balance, which can also help to keep them from falling and breaking a hip.

Sometimes, no matter how conscientious a person is, they can still end up needing advanced cardiovascular services as many cardiovascular events occur with little to no warning. St. Clair Health is ready in that event, too. St. Clair Health has teams and services ready to address a variety of cardiovascular issues.

“St. Clair Health offers advanced care close to home for the communities we serve,” Dr. Kiser said. “We have expanded services to include everything short of heart transplants and long-term artificial hearts.”

He says this includes, but is not limited to, the following services:

  • MitraClip to fix the mitral valve

  • Patent foramen ovale (PFO) closure

  • TCAR Therapy (capacitive and resistive energy transfer)

  • Temporary artificial heart and lung machines for cardiac and respiratory failure

  • Transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR)

  • The Watchman™ implant

Technology is advancing cardiovascular care at a rapid rate, and St. Clair Health is keeping pace. This allows physicians to care for patients with cardiovascular disease, with advanced care, such as transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) for older patients and minimally invasive aortic valve replacement (MIS AVR) for younger patients.

“Technology has become so advanced that you can have an aortic valve replacement and go home the next day—sometimes even the same day,” said Dr. Kiser. “We also have advanced ways to take care of the heart when there is a problem with the rhythm.”

New pacemaker devices keep patients from passing out and/or dying if they have something called sudden death, a lethal cardiac arrhythmia. Other devices can make a failing heart beat stronger or treat atrial fibrillation (Afib).

“In fact, we are now able to treat the rhythm itself with options like an ablation done using a small catheter in your vein or a hybrid ablation called the Convergent Procedure - which I created in 2009 - for difficult to treat Afib,” he said. “Another option is left atrial appendage occlusion to help prevent strokes in people with Afib. This may be done surgically using small telescopes or using a Watchman device, which is placed through the vein in the patient’s thigh.”

St. Clair Health now has two state-of-the-art cardiovascular intensive care beds, staffed 24/7 with specially trained nurses and advanced providers. These beds provide the resources needed to take care of the sickest of patients, right here in the South Hills.

While many of the recent technologies have been focused on procedural devices, Dr. Kiser believes the future may not be in procedures but in medications and genetic modification. These Star Trek types of innovations may prevent, or at least slow, the development of coronary and valve disease. People may live beyond 100 routinely if these new interventions prove to be successful.

“The future of St. Clair Health will reflect these innovative new technologies with a bigger goal in mind,” he said. “We want to capitalize on the level of expertise we have working at St. Clair Health right now —the young, intelligent superstars—to create a Cardiovascular Institute that brings the innovations I talked about earlier to our community.”

This may mean involving St. Clair Health’s South Hills neighbors in working toward building a new state-of-the-art facility with ICUs, procedural suites, operating rooms, and advanced imaging.

“All these things only expand upon the excellent staff, quality, and patient care we offer today,” said Dr. Kiser. “Our strength is in our collaboration. We work together across specialties to provide a unique and personal healing experience, delivering exceptional cardiovascular care at The Heart Center that patients come to with unwavering confidence.”

Andy C. Kiser, MD, FACS, FACC, FCCP, specializes in cardiac and thoracic surgery. He practices with St. Clair Medical Group, and was named a top doctor by Pittsburgh Magazine in 2025. Please call (412) 942-5728 to schedule an appointment.