Dr. Eric J. Velazquez is a cardiologist and Associate Professor of Medicine at Duke University Medical Center, faculty member of Duke's Clinic Research Institute (DCRI) and Director of Duke University's Cardiac Diagnostic Unit and Echocardiography Laboratories. He attended Medical School at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York and completed his residency training in Internal Medicine and fellowship in Cardiology at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina. His clinical interests are in the evaluation and management of heart failure especially in association with coronary artery disease, hypertension, and valvular disease; the care of post-cardiac surgery patients and cardiovascular imaging. Dr. Velazquez's research interests are focused on clinical heart failure, left ventricular dysfunction complicating myocardial infarction, ischemic heart failure/ischemic cardiomyopathy, noninvasive imaging of myocardial viability, echocardiographic assessment of systolic and diastolic dysfunction, cardiovascular care quality improvement, disparities in cardiovascular care delivery to minority Americans and clinical trial operations and methodology. Dr. Velazquez also serves as the Director of late phase cardiovascular trials at the DCRI where he oversees a multitude of late phase clinical trials as well as serves as the principal investigator of several large, multicenter clinical research programs.