Jose Diaz-Gomez

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Get to know Cardiac Anesthesiologist/Intensivist Dr. José L. Díaz-Gómez, who serves patients in Houston, Texas.

A board-certified physician with over two decades of experience, Dr. Díaz-Gómez specializes in cardiothoracic anesthesiology and critical care medicine. Since 2019, he has been the Chief of the Cardiothoracic, Mechanical Circulatory Support, and Transplant Critical Care section at the Texas Heart® Institute - Baylor St Luke’s Medical Center and Director of Critical Care Echocardiography, managing patients undergoing a variety of heart, lung, and vascular-related procedures. He also serves as Senior Faculty, and Program Director of the Critical Care Medicine Fellowship at the Baylor College of Medicine.

Baylor St. Luke's Medical Center is the home of the world-renowned Texas Heart® Institute (THI). The fellowship-trained anesthesiology faculty at THI provides both operative anesthesia care and post-operative critical care services. In addition, they provide excellent teaching to medical students, residents and fellows in the management of routine cardiac, thoracic and vascular cases, as well as complex mechanical circulatory support procedures, solid organ transplantation, thoracic aortic reconstruction and hypothermic circulatory arrest.

Academically, Dr. Díaz-Gómez completed his higher education in Medellín, Colombia, where he obtained his medical degree from the Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana. After his residency in anesthesiology at Universidad de Antioquia from 1999 to 2001, he completed a fellowship in critical care medicine at Fundación Valle del Lili in Cali, Colombia. In the following three years, he served as a critical care specialist at Clinica Universitaria Bolivariana in Medellin, Colombia.

Upon relocating to the United States in 2004, he completed a residency in anesthesiology at the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio, and a fellowship in critical care medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. After returning to the Cleveland Clinic, he pursued further experience in cardiothoracic anesthesiology.

An expert in his field, the doctor is board-certified in anesthesiology and critical care medicine by the American Board of Anesthesiology (ABA). As the certifying body for anesthesiologists since 1938, the ABA is committed to partnering with physicians to advance lifelong learning and exceptional patient care. Its mission is to advance the highest standards of the practice of anesthesiology.

Moreover, Dr. Díaz-Gómez attained board certification in neurocritical care through the United Council for Neurological Specialties; and in advanced perioperative transesophageal echocardiography and critical care echocardiography through the National Board of Echocardiography. He has made significant contributions to the Society of Critical Care Medicine including elevating education of critical care ultrasound, as well as mentoring junior faculty in ultrasound courses and ultrasound committees over the last decade.   Dr.Díaz-Gómez seeks to consolidate societal and organizational (National Board of Echocardiography) efforts to reskill anesthesiologists/intensivists and all background critical care practitioners in echocardiography—TTE and TEE. In addition, he represents the Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM) at the National Board of Echocardiography. He currently serves as the anesthesiology-designated seat within the SCCM Council. 

From 2010 to 2012, he served as a cardiothoracic and vascular anesthesiologist and intensivist at Cleveland Clinic. He also held an academic appointment as an Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine. Thereafter, Dr. Díaz-Gómez served at Mayo Clinic Florida between 2012 and 2018, working as a cardiac anesthesiologist, intensivist, neurointensivist. He had an academic appointment as an Associate Professor of Anesthesiology at Mayo Clinic School of Medicine and Science in 2018. And subsequently one year at South Florida Critical Care Services as an intensivist and critical care ultrasonography consultant. Aside from his current leadership positions at the Texas Heart® Institute and Baylor College of Medicine, he assumed the role of cardiovascular and thoracic anesthesiologist in 2022 after facilitating the consolidation of the cardiothoracic, mechanical circulatory support, and transplant critical care section he leads. 

Dr. Díaz-Gómez's research contributions include over 65 peer-reviewed publications in critical care medicine and ultrasonography with a high- profile publication at New England Journal of Medicine—Point of Care Ultrasonography in 2021; an edited book in Critical Care Ultrasonography; two dozen non-peer reviewed publications and over a dozen book chapters. His initial investigations on critical care ultrasonography's education highlighted the interdisciplinary and multi-professional application of this tool in critical care practice. He subsequently proposed alternative techniques in advanced critical care ultrasonography for specific patient populations such as pulmonary hypertension and mechanical circulatory support. 

Anesthesiology is the medical specialty concerned with the total perioperative care of patients before, during, and after surgery. It encompasses anesthesia, intensive care medicine, critical emergency medicine, and pain medicine. Anesthesiologists have the primary responsibility of monitoring the patient’s vital signs during surgery. In addition to basic measurements such as pulse, blood pressure, and temperature, they measure the patient’s respiration.

During his seven years at Cleveland Clinic, Dr. Díaz-Gómez received several recognitions, including the F. Merlin Bumpus, Ph.D. Junior Investigator Award in Clinical Research in 2006, the Carol Ferguson Resident of the Year in 2008 Clinic, the Anesthesiology Institute Clinical Scholars' Award in 2009, the Attending Anesthesiologist of the Year in 2011. In addition, he has been awarded as a  Fellow of the American College of Critical Care Medicine— FCCM, and a Fellow of the American Society of Echocardiography—FASE. Lastly, he is finishing a Master’s in Healthcare Quality at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

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