William O\'Neill, MD, FACC, MSCAI

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Get to know Interventional Cardiologist Dr. William O’Neill, who serves patients in Detroit, Michigan.

Dr. O’Neill is an internationally recognized leader in interventional cardiology and structural heart disease, as well as a pioneer in research and new techniques to diagnose and treat heart disease. Currently, he serves as the Medical Director of the Center for Structural Heart Disease at Henry Ford Hospital.

For over 100 years, Henry Ford Hospital has been a leader in advancing medicine and delivering the most innovative treatments. It is a state-of-the-art academic hospital and research center located in Detroit’s New Center area. The 877-bed hospital is recognized for clinical excellence in the fields of cardiology and cardiovascular surgery, neurology and neurosurgery, orthopedics and sports medicine, transplant, and cancer. It is the flagship hospital of Henry Ford Health, one of the nation’s leading comprehensive integrated health systems.

Back in 1977, Dr. O’Neill graduated with his medical degree from the Wayne State University School of Medicine. He then went on to complete his residency in internal medicine at the same educational venue in 1980, before completing his fellowship in cardiovascular disease at the University of Michigan in 1982.

Recognized as a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology (FACC), the doctor is one of the few Master Fellows out of 4,500 world-wide members of the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (MSCAI), the professional medical society for invasive and interventional cardiologists. 

Furthermore, he pioneered the use of angioplasty for treatment of heart attacks, which is now the mainstay therapy throughout the world, and performed the first transcaval aortic valve replacement (TAVR) through a catheter in the U.S. in 2005. Currently, has been working on new catheter-based treatments of structural heart disease, and is organizing new protocols to treat a deadly side-effect of massive heart attacks, known as the National Cardiogenic Shock Initiative (NCSI), which has proven to increase patient survival rates from 50% to 76%.

A leader in academic and teaching hospitals for nearly 30 years, and to date, an author of more than 300 hundred peer-reviewed articles and abstracts published in medical literature, Dr. O’Neill has written multiple book chapters, and edited one of the first textbooks in the field of interventional cardiologists. He was a founding member of the American Board of Internal Medicine interventional cardiology board, which certifies all interventional cardiologists.

Cardiology is a branch of medicine that deals with the disorders of the heart, as well as some parts of the circulatory system. The field includes medical diagnosis and treatment of congenital heart defects, coronary artery disease, heart failure, valvular heart disease, and electrophysiology. Cardiologists are doctors who diagnose, assess, and treat patients with diseases and defects of the heart and blood vessels (the cardiovascular system).

Throughout his illustrious career, Dr. O’Neill has been the recipient of various honors and accolades, including the America’s Top Doctors Award, Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Seymour Gordon Award for Distinguished Achievement by the Michigan Chapter of the American Heart Association. He was also the founding chair of the Innovation in Intervention Summit by the American College of Cardiology.

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