California Doctor to Lead American College of Cardiology

The American College of Cardiology (ACC) has elected John Gordon Harold, M.D., M.A.C.C., as its newest president.

Harold is a clinical professor of medicine with the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles and Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute in Los Angeles, Calif. He previously served as chief of staff at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center as well as clinical chief of cardiology.

An active member of the ACC, Harold has served as president of the ACC’s California Chapter, ACC governor for Southern California, and Chair of the ACC Board of Governors. Through collaboration with the ACC California chapter and the British Cardiovascular Society, he also helped develop the International Twinning program, which pairs an ACC state chapter with a national cardiovascular society. The twinning program allows ACC chapters to collaborate on opportunities to improve heart health and cardiovascular care around the world.

During his presidency, Harold will focus on innovation in education and technology and attempt to further develop and expand the organization’s digital strategy in order to unify and enhance the college’s digital platforms and offerings.

“I am honored to lead the ACC as we begin to navigate the digital landscape in the coming year,”Harold said. “Through this new digital strategy, the College will improve member experience and engagement, enhance the doctor patient/relationship, and improve quality. I will promote ACC’s mission to transform cardiovascular care and improve heart health and as a global knowledge organization that will continue to innovate and engage with its members in a mutually beneficial way. Forty years ago in San Francisco, my mentor Jeremy Swan, M.D., took over as president of the ACC. Serving as ACC president is in itself an amazing honor, but to assume the same role in the same city as the one person who started me on my journey with the ACC is even more rewarding.”

Born in Petaluma, Calif., to Irish immigrants, Harold attended New York City’s Stuyvesant High School and later earned a Bachelor of Science degree at the City College of New York, where he was a member of the first graduating class of the Sophie Davis Center for Biomedical Education. He received his medical degree from the State University of New York at Stony Brook, which named him Alumnus of the Year in 2007. Harold completed a three-year residency in internal medicine at the Mount Sinai Hospital in New York under the mentorship of Richard Gorlin, M.D., and Simon Dack, M.D. He returned to California for fellowship training in cardiovascular disease at the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute and began his practice in internal medicine and cardiology in 1985.

Harold has received the American Heart Association’s Passion of the Heart award and has been honored with the Master designation from both the American College of Cardiology and the American College of Physicians. He recently completed a six-year tenure on the American Board of Internal Medicine’s board of directors. Harold is board certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine in internal medicine, cardiovascular disease, critical care medicine and geriatrics.

The American College of Cardiology is a 43,000-member medical society comprised of physicians, surgeons, nurses, physician assistants, pharmacists and practice managers. The Washington, D.C.-based organization helps shape health policy, standards and guidelines; it also provides professional education, operates national registries to measure and improve quality of care, disseminates cardiovascular research, and bestows credentials upon cardiovascular specialists who meet stringent qualifications.