Kalaivani Sivakumar, M.D., Joins UAMS as Medical Director of Heart Restoration Program
| LITTLE ROCK — Kalaivani Sivakumar, M.D., has joined the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) as medical director of the heart restoration, mechanical circulatory support and cardiac transplant program.
The Heart Restoration Program, designed to serve patients who are in the very early to very late stages of heart failure, started in January. It includes the implantation of left ventricular assist devices (LVADs), which may be used as a bridge to heart transplantation or as treatment in lieu of a transplant. The program plans to eventually provide heart transplants.
Sivakumar, an assistant professor in the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, joins UAMS from Birmingham, Alabama, where she completed an advanced heart failure fellowship at the University of Alabama. Previously, she was chief fellow at the Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta following the completion of both a cardiology fellowship and a residency in internal medicine there.
She earned her medical degree in 2008 from Thanjavur Medical College in Tamilnadu, India.
“We were delighted to recruit Dr. Sivakumar to lead the medical side of our Heart Restoration Program,” said Paul Mounsey, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine in the UAMS Department of Internal Medicine in the College of Medicine. “Working with Dr. Jay Bhama and the rest of the team, she will add a new dimension to cardiac care at UAMS as we move into our artificial heart and heart transplant program.”
Bhama, M.D., is chief of the Division of Cardiovascular Surgery and surgical director of the UAMS Heart Center.
UAMS is the state’s only health sciences university, with colleges of Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, Health Professions and Public Health; a graduate school; a hospital; a main campus in Little Rock; a Northwest Arkansas regional campus in Fayetteville; a statewide network of regional campuses; and eight institutes: the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute, Jackson T. Stephens Spine & Neurosciences Institute, Harvey & Bernice Jones Eye Institute, Psychiatric Research Institute, Donald W. Reynolds Institute on Aging, Translational Research Institute, Institute for Digital Health & Innovation and the Institute for Community Health Innovation. UAMS includes UAMS Health, a statewide health system that encompasses all of UAMS’ clinical enterprise. UAMS is the only adult Level 1 trauma center in the state. UAMS has 3,485 students, 915 medical residents and fellows, and seven dental residents. It is the state’s largest public employer with more than 11,000 employees, including 1,200 physicians who provide care to patients at UAMS, its regional campuses, Arkansas Children’s, the VA Medical Center and Baptist Health. Visit www.uams.edu or uamshealth.com. Find us on Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), YouTube or Instagram.###