Andrea Natale, M.D.
I am dedicated to my profession. I believe it is my mission in life. I give all of myself to make sure my patient’s heart does what it’s supposed to do.
Dr. Andrea Natale believes the greatest thing he can give his patients is a normal life, free of medication. When he runs into a wall in this effort, he thoughtfully plows through the wall – Dr. Natale pioneered a new circumferential ultrasound vein-ablation system to correct atrial fibrillation and performed the procedure on the world’s first five patients. He also developed some of the current catheter-based cures for atrial fibrillation and was the first electrophysiologist in the nation to perform percutaneous epicardial radiofrequency ablation, which is a treatment for people who fail conventional ablation.
A native of Siracusa, Italy, Dr. Natale graduated summa cum laude from the Medical School of the University of Florence, Italy, and summa cum laude from the Catholic University School of Cardiology in Rome, Italy. He received his clinical training in cardiology at Methodist Hospital, Baylor College in Houston and at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario, Canada. After completing a clinical fellowship in cardiology (electrophysiology) at the University of Western Ontario in 1991, he further trained in cardiology (electrophysiology) at the University of Wisconsin, Sinai Samaritan Medical Center in Milwaukee.
Dr. Natale was head of the cardiovascular physiopathology section at the Italian Air Force’s Aerospace Research Centre. He has served as director of the electrophysiology laboratory at Duke University and director of the electrophysiology program at the University of Kentucky, Lexington. He also headed the cardiac electrophysiology section of the cardiology department at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation in Cleveland, Ohio.
Dr. Natale has served as a professor at a variety of prestigious universities, including Duke University and Stanford University. He has been an invited lecturer at more than 200 symposiums and conferences around the world, and is the author or co-author of hundreds of published articles on pacing and electrophysiology. In addition to serving on the editorial boards of numerous medical journals, he is editor-in-chief of the Journal of Atrial Fibrillation.
In 2005, Dr. Natale received the Bakken Heart-Brain Institute Research award for his project “Cardiac Consequences of Subarachnoid Hemorrhage” from the Cleveland Clinic Bakken Heart-Brain Institute. He also received the Cleveland Clinic Innovator Award for Innovation in 2004, 2005 and 2006.
Throughout his career, Dr. Natale has found meeting the challenge of curing patients with complex problems to be most rewarding.
Education:
- M.D., University of Florence Medical School, Florence, Italy
Catholic University School of Cardiology, Rome, Italy - Residency (Cardiology), Methodist Hospital, Baylor College, Houston, TX
- Fellowship (Cardiology and Electrophysiology),
University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada
University of Wisconsin, Sinai Samaritan Medical Center, Milwaukee, WI
Recognition
- Bakken Heart-Brain Research Award
- Cleveland Clinic Innovator of the Year, 2004, 2005, 2006
Board Certification
- American Board of Internal Medicine (Internal Medicine, Cardiovascular Disease and Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiology)
Memberships
- Editorial Board Member, Journal of the American College of Cardiology, American Journal of Cardiology, Journal of Cardiovascular Electrophysiology, American Heart Journal, Circulation, Journal of Electrocardiology. EP Lab Digest
- FDA Task Force on Atrial Fibrillation
- Heart Rhythm Society