Interventional cardiologist John Carroll, MD, was sitting onstage as part of a panel at the prestigious international CSI cardiology conference in Frankfurt, Germany, in June 2024 when Sir Shakeel Qureshi, a British cardiologist who heads the CSI Foundation, rose to present its lifetime achievement award.
“I started listening and I heard this person’s done this and that, and I thought, this sounds like a very nice person, very accomplished,” Carroll, a University of Colorado Department of Medicine professor, recalls. “And then they started showing a video, and all of a sudden, my daughter was up there speaking. I was shocked.”
Carroll was “totally surprised” that he was the one being honored in front of peers from around the world – and delighted that his children were featured in the video, along with several of Carroll’s cardiology peers worldwide, all singing his praises.
Addressing Carroll in the video, his daughter, Grace Carroll, said: “What an amazing father you are.” Son Nick Carroll added: “Congratulations on winning this amazing award.” And son Adam Carroll said: “I just want to let you know how much I look up to you, how important you and Mom were as mentors, as physicians, and of course as parents.”
Carroll grins as he describes the moment. “You feel guilty spending so much time at the hospital, and on-call, and to know they appreciated what was going on when I wasn’t home with them was especially moving.”
Three of John Carroll's children as seen in the CSI video shown at its awards presentation: From left, Adam, Grace, and Nick Carroll. Photos courtesy CSI.
Carroll has been a professor in the CU Division of Cardiology for nearly three decades and a clinician at what is now UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital. Over that time, he has helped to put CU and UCH on the international map for interventional cardiology treatment, research, and education.
“Within his own unit, he is highly regarded. Around the world, he is highly respected,” Qureshi said in presenting Carroll with CSI’s highest award for major contributions to interventional cardiology. “He has contributed to many studies. He is valued by colleagues and patients alike.”
Interventional cardiology involves the use of minimally invasive catheter-based techniques, including coronary angioplasty and cardiac valve replacement, guided by advanced imaging technology to perform cardiac procedures, instead of surgery.
“When I did my cardiology training in Boston in the 1970s, interventional cardiology didn’t exist,” Carroll says. “It was right around when I was finishing training that new therapies started to be developed. After training in Boston I spent time as a clinical research fellow in Zurich, which was then the birthplace of coronary interventions.”
As the field developed, he says, “you were no longer just figuring out what was wrong with a patient’s heart and then referring them to the surgeons. You were actually fixing the problem, or at least alleviating symptoms.”
Following 14 years on the cardiology faculty at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, where he directed the Hans Hecht Catheterization Laboratory, Carroll was recruited in 1996 to lead CU’s interventional cardiology program by Michael Bristow, MD, PhD, then head of the cardiology division, and the late Robert Schrier, then chair of the Department of Medicine.
Carroll’s wife, Eugenia Carroll, MD, also a cardiologist, was recruited at the same time to lead the Women’s Heart Disease Program at UCH. S. James Chen, PhD, was also recruited from Chicago to lead the 3D Imaging Laboratory to grow interventional imaging research at CU/UCH.
In 1996, the interventional cardiology program at CU/UCH “was not notable on the national scene in terms of clinical research,” Carroll says. “It did not yet have a formal training program. And a lot of people needing advanced cardiac procedures, if they had the means, were leaving Colorado for treatment. And I said, we have to change that.”
Carroll’s top priority was developing a high-quality clinical program, introducing interventional procedures in coronary artery disease, peripheral vascular disease, and structural heart disease. That growth in the program allowed patients in the region to receive advanced therapies locally instead of heading elsewhere.
Carroll also recruited expert clinicians and academic cardiologists. He built fellowship training and continued education programs, bolstered clinical research through trials, and introduced advanced imaging techniques for procedures.
“I think the difference between 1996 and now is enormous,” he says. He lists John Messenger, MD; Robert Quaife, MD; Ernesto Salcedo, PhD; and Chen as “some of the many key faculty who made this happen.”
Messenger, one of Carroll’s first recruits at CU, now has succeeded Carroll as leader of the interventional cardiology program.
“John came here when our program was in its infancy. He turned CU into a regional referral center,” Messenger says. He cites a long list of major research, treatment, and imaging science achievements that were engineered by his mentor.
“He’s always focused on making things safe and right for the patient,” Messenger adds. “He always puts the patient in the forefront, whether it’s in the design and execution of research, or in performing complex clinical procedures. And he’s considered one of the leading experts in structural heart disease in the world.”
In the clinic, Carroll focuses on catheter-based therapies for heart valves, patent foramen ovale (PFO), closure of other “holes” in the heart, and coronary artery disease. In 2016 he was inducted as a Master Interventionalist of the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography & Interventions (MSCAI), recognizing the top 3% of those practicing in his field. (Messenger was inducted this year.)
As a researcher, Carroll has conducted clinical trials in new therapies for heart valves, PFO, and other cardiac defects, as well as new cardiac imaging techniques. He co-edited the first international textbook on structural heart disease interventions, and he has served on various national and international steering committees in his field.
Two of his sons have followed Carroll into medicine. Adam Carroll, MD, is a cardiac surgical resident at UCH, and Ian Carroll, PhD, is a senior research associate in the Division of Cardiology.
Along with Carroll’s successes has come pain. When he lost his wife to primary peritoneal carcinoma in 2014, “that made it difficult to keep going professionally. I soldiered on. But when I turned 70, I thought, I’ve been doing medicine for 50 years, now I’m a single parent, and it’s time to shift my activities. I’m not sad about leaving, because I feel I accomplished everything I set out to do.”
As Carroll transitions to retirement next June, he is spending time with children and grandchildren. He has renovated a 1880s-vintage cabin in the Colorado mountains that he and his wife bought in 1998. He enjoys woodworking, photography, and exploring the great outdoors.
Carroll says the interventional cardiology program he built is in good hands now that Messenger is leading it. “John and I are very close personally and professionally. We’ve grown together, evolved together, and it’s wonderful that he’s putting his own identity on the program.”
Says Messenger: “John and I have been friends the entire time I’ve been here. He’s been a mentor and like a second father to me. It has been really amazing to have trained under him and to work side by side with him for almost 30 years. He’s been a fantastic role model to my family. I wish we had more people like him in the world.”
Photo at top: Sir Shakeel Qureshi (left) of the CSI Foundation presents the CSI Lifetime Achievement Award to John Carroll, MD, at the CSI Frankfurt conference in June 2024. Photo courtesy CSI.