Medical Director and Founder of the Arizona Heart Institute
Dr. Edward B. Diethrich, an internationally renowned cardiovascular surgeon who has practiced for more than 40 years, is regarded as one of the world's pioneers in heart disease diagnosis and innovative cardiovascular and endovascular treatments.
In 1971, Dr. Diethrich founded the Arizona Heart Institute (AHI) and Foundation the nation's first freestanding outpatient clinic devoted solely to the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of heart and blood vessel disease.
Dr. Diethrich is the Medical Director and Chief of Cardiovascular Surgery at the Arizona Heart Hospital, where he performs state-of-the-art endovascular procedures using the latest devices, many of which he helped design and test in clinical trials.
Dr. Diethrich's professional accomplishments are diverse and include the development of the sternal saw used for open chest surgery and the establishment of the nation's first outpatient cardiac catheterization laboratory. An advocate for patient education, Dr. Diethrich appears weekly on a television news program answering call-in questions and is interviewed frequently by the media.
A graduate of the Medical School at the University of Michigan, Dr. Diethrich did his surgical residency training at St. Joseph's Mercy Hospital in Ann Arbor and Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit. After completing a two-year thoracic and cardiovascular surgery residency at the Baylor College of Medicine under the tutelage of famed heart surgeon, Dr. Michael DeBakey, he remained at Baylor as assistant professor in surgery for six years.
Dr. Diethrich is board certified in general, thoracic and cardiovascular surgery, and is a fellow of the American Colleges of Angiology, Cardiology, Surgery, and Chest Physicians and the International College of Angiology. He is also a past president and chairman of the Board of Directors of the International Society of Endovascular Specialists. An active member of the community, he belongs to more than 25 organizations, has received numerous awards and has authored several books and hundreds of scientific articles.
He lectures and operates worldwide teaching many of the procedures developed at the Arizona Heart Institute. He provides consultation and second opinion services in addition to his operative work in all areas of cardiovascular surgery and intervention. Dr. Diethrich is an enthusiastic educator and an advanced scientific researcher. He is the Scientific Director of the new Arizona Heart Institute Translational Research Center. In that capacity, he will guide the Institute's investigative progress and assure that the Institute and Hospital will always be on the cutting edge of cardiovascular scientific and human application. Dr. Diethrich provides services at the AHI main office located in central Phoenix.
