International Academy of Cardiology awards prestigious fellowship to UB medical school dean

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Michael E. Cain, MD, vice president for health sciences at the University at Buffalo and dean of the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, has received a Distinguished Fellowship Award from the International Academy of Cardiology.

The award recognizes profound contributions to cardiovascular medicine and service to the academy. It has been awarded to fewer than 20 individuals.

Cain is an internationally recognized cardiovascular physician-scientist who specializes in abnormal heart rhythms.

A committee of 140 leading cardiologists and scientists selected Cain for the honor. Prior recipients include Anne B. Curtis, MD, Mary and Charles Bauer Professor and Chair of Medicine at UB, who received it in 2010.

Cain was presented with the award during the 18th World Congress on Heart Disease, held last month in Vancouver. Clinicians and investigators from 51 countries attended the meeting, which offered a comprehensive overview of the latest research developments and future directions in cardiovascular medicine.

Cain’s research, supported by the National Institutes of Health, has focused on determining the mechanisms of life-threatening heart rhythm abnormalities that occur in heart attacks and other conditions that damage heart muscle cells.

His findings are helping physicians better characterize and more accurately localize abnormal heart tissue, and better identify patients at increased risk for sudden cardiac death.

Cain has authored or co-authored more than 135 scientific publications, review articles and book chapters. He also has lectured internationally.

A former associate editor of the journal Circulation, he serves on the editorial boards of the American Journal of Cardiology, the Journal of Cardiovascular Electrophysiology, Nature Clinical Practice Cardiovascular Medicine and Heart Rhythm.

He is a fellow of the American College of Cardiology, the American Heart Association and the Heart Rhythm Society.

Cain is a professor in the UB departments of medicine, biomedical engineering and physiology and biophysics. He is board-certified in internal medicine, cardiovascular diseases and clinical cardiac electrophysiology and pacing.

Before coming to UB, Cain directed the Cardiovascular Division at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

He is a resident of Orchard Park.