Finally after eight years of training , she finished in 1999 and took her first position on staff at Mayo . This was short-lived , though , as she really wanted to focus on patient care continuity , rather than the research commitments that come with academics . She began her search and found a private practice that did a lot of work at a small , local hospital in Franklin , Tennessee . Leaving the comforts of Mayo after nearly a decade was a bit scary at first , but she felt well equipped for the challenge . Eventually , though , with the more rural location , she began to feel limited and unable to practice some of the skills she was more interested in , like reading echocardiograms .
Not knowing much about Kentucky at all , she saw an opportunity and came to interview with Louisville Cardiology , which was a private practice with three physicians at the time . Dr . Das and another physician were hired around the same time , and soon they were a group of five . The mentality of those in the practice was what sold her on joining .
“ Everybody ’ s motto and thought process was the same : if somebody wants to do heart caths , they did heart caths . If someone else wanted to do TEE , that could be their thing . We could super subspecialize and focus on certain areas we were especially drawn to . We were a very dynamic five-person team .”
Over the next several years , the practice grew steadily , and with the changes to the Louisville health system landscape , they eventually joined Baptist Health . The practice now has 21 physicians and close to 15 nurse practitioners . In her new role at Baptist , she helped with the restructuring of the echocardiography department .
“ We were bringing together multiple groups and needed to make the echo department more cohesive . It is essential that when you go into a Baptist Louisville hospital , you have the same echo everywhere , with excellent technical support . We helped set a standard across several hospitals and offices .”
Around the same time , conversations began around the world regarding cardio-oncology . While the name might make you think of a focus on tumors in the heart , it is instead a focus on the heart health of patients receiving cancer treatments .
“ There was a call to action from the American College of Cardiology . So we did some research on the Louisville market and the needs of the community , and we identified pretty early on that we have a lot of high-risk individuals and that there was a clear gap ,” she said . She attended the ACC meeting in February 2020 where the Cardio-Oncology Section had just their third meeting , so she was getting in at the very beginning . “ I was so instantly intrigued . There were some cool tools that were introduced at the same time to monitor patients with heart disease with echo - this was emphasized nationwide and internationally . I really enjoyed seeing the differences in these studies , and they ’ re so clear-cut , that it was , again , basic science and a place where two plus two equals four . I wouldn ’ t say cardio-oncology was in the forefront of my interests when I started this , but the science is intriguing . I was also diagnosed with thyroid cancer that was found as a fluke when I had an accident years ago and it was seen on a CT scan and subsequent biopsy . It was many
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