Amit Khera, M.D.

Meet Dr. Khera

Dallas Cardiologist

Why do some people develop heart disease and others don’t? What are the best ways to prevent heart disease and its complications? For Amit Khera, M.D., these are questions of life – and a life’s work.

Dr. Khera directs UT Southwestern Medical Center’s Preventive Cardiology Program, which aims to prevent coronary artery disease and its complications. He trained at Harvard Medical School and UT Southwestern Medical School, and is an expert in cardiac risk assessment and risk factor modifications.

His interest in cardiac disease prevention began during residency in Boston when he cared for a 45-year-old man who was admitted into the hospital for his seventh heart procedure to fix blocked arteries. He wondered how the patient had developed such malignant coronary artery disease and thought there must be a better way to prevent recurrent problems.

"Doing a little bit early in life to prevent a heart attack is better than trying to do a lot later on down the road,” he says.

"It's quite clear that heart disease is indeed preventable. Studies over the past decade have shown that for those who can achieve healthy levels for major risk factors like blood pressure and cholesterol and who don’t smoke, the chances of having a heart attack is almost 80 percent lower than those with unhealthy levels."

But achieving healthy levels is not always easy, nor will a one-size-fits-all approach work for treatment. A practical plan of exercise and dietary changes for a busy executive who constantly travels is quite different than the plan for someone with a more regular schedule, but they both have different challenges, Dr. Khera notes. And those with rare genetic disorders or extreme risk factors will require a different playbook altogether.

"The approach has to be individualized," he says. “That’s what we do."