Gordon A. Ewy, MD

Dr. Ewy is Professor and Chief, Section of Cardiology and Director of the University Heart Center, University of Arizona College of Medicine. A native of Kansas, Dr. Ewy obtained his B.A. and M.D. from the University of Kansas. He took his residency and cardiology fellowship training at Georgetown University, and, subsequently, was on the faculty of the Georgetown University School of Medicine from 1965-1969. He came to Tucson as a founding member of the Section of Cardiology at the University of Arizona in 1969.

Dr. Ewy is the author of nearly 400 publications, including his most recent book Cardiovascular Drug Therapy in the Management of Heart Disease. He has made significant research contributions in several areas, including the pharmacokinetics of digoxin in the elderly and in obesity. His research in defibrillation elucidated determinants of transthoracic impedance to direct current shock and demonstrated that current density and not energy is responsible for defibrillation. Dr.Ewy has also been a leader in the study of CPR. Along with his associates in the Arizona CPR research group, he has helped to clarify the mechanism of blood flow in CPR and the importance of chest compression rate. Most recently, this group has shown the importance of chest compression only for bystander CPR. Dr. Ewy also has a longstanding interest in clinical cardiology and described the hemodynamic correlates of the dicrotic arterial pulse, the late parasternal lift in mitral regurgitation, and the hemodynamic correlates of the abdominal jugular test.

In addition to his current role as a board member of the Cardiovascular Disease Subspecialty Board (American Board of Internal Medicine), Dr. Ewy has held numerous other national leadership positions in the field of cardiology, including membership on the Board of Trustees of the American College of Cardiology from 1992-1997. He is associate editor of Cardiology and is on the editorial board of Clinical Cardiology.