Meera Kondapaneni, MD, chief of cardiology at Cleveland-based The MetroHealth System, has the rare experience of having worked in both developed and developing countries. That experience sparked her passion for cardiology.
Dr. Kondapaneni decided she would specialize in cardiology after working with patients suffering from heart disease. She moved from India to the United States to complete her postgraduate training, "and in both sides of the world, the problem is the same," she told Becker's. It was the challenge of reducing mortality and morbidity with heart disease that made her choose cardiology as a specialty.
She recently connected with Becker's to discuss the technology and programs that excite her most.
Question: What drew you to cardiology?
Dr. Meera Kondapaneni: My first interest in cardiology started when I was learning physiology. To me, the anatomy and physiology are so well intertwined with the heart. The heart's physiology is so much more logical and it makes sense. Everything that the heart does is easy to explain through physiology, which is something that really excites me. Then, when I entered my patient care, I noticed the mortality and morbidity associated with heart disease. It was the challenge of reducing associated mortality and morbidity that drew me into cardiology.
Q: What heart study, technology or innovation are you most excited about right now?
MK: The two things that excite me are first, the medications we have that can specifically treat inflammation and prevent heart attacks and heart disease; and second, is transcatheter aortic valve replacement. We are now trying to do the transcatheter edge to edge repairs. It's not as sophisticated yet as the TAVR, but every year new ways to repair mitral and tricuspid valves with this TEER technique improve. We are able to get these impressive treatments to people who did not have options up until a decade or two ago.
Q: What aspect of your work or the field keeps you up at night?
MK: It's the gaps in the care. I work at a safety net hospital and we see patients in all spectrums of socioeconomic status. These patients expect us to help them and sometimes you're limited by money. There is this drug that we know is extremely beneficial now with heart failure patients and it is extremely expensive. The deductible is so high that a lot of the times, patients cannot afford them even having Medicare and Medicaid. Even some patients with private insurance can't afford a $600 drug every month. It really bothers me when I have to have these conversations with patients. I can't sleep because we have so much, and there's so much waste of everything, yet we still have people who cannot afford treatments. On the bright side, we have a motivated team and financial counselors who can aid patients to get them treatment they need even without insurance. The fact that I'm in a system where I'm able to do my part to help these patients helps me wake up in the morning.
Q: What's one thing your hospital/system is doing in heart care that you're most proud of?
MK: We have a high school that resides within MetroHealth Hospital. Recently, we partnered with the principal to create a heart health curriculum. We realized that a lot of our education comes after someone already has a disease. It's important that individuals learn how to manage their disease once they have it, but teaching teens how to eat the right foods, be more active can impact their health before it becomes an issue. I'm very excited about this project, which will start this year. Hopefully, we can expand our healthcare education curriculum into the district and prevent risk factors. I think what we do in the community has even much more of an impact because that education percolates across the community, hopefully changing the culture so we are evolving into a more heart health-conscious society than before.
Q: What's the best leadership advice you've received?
MK: People used to say, "lead from the front," but I believe more in leading together, where you are with your team and you all move together. It's not like I'm ahead of the team and I'm pulling everyone. Leading with the team is more effective and makes me feel like I'm part of the team instead of ahead of them. My team trusts me more and it's not a top-to-bottom approach.
The second thing is the ability to delegate, which was the hardest thing personally for me. Advice that I have received early on: Let go of my desire to control everything and trust that person to do the work. If they need help, then it's an opportunity to teach and for that person to develop into a future leader. Feeling comfortable delegating tasks and guiding people to do it well is the biggest transformation I've seen over the years in my leadership.