Dr. Valerian Fernandes received his MBBS degree from St. John’s Medical College, Bangalore in 1989 and his post graduate M.D. (internal medicine) degree from Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) Chandigarh, India in 1992. He received his MRCP degree in 1994 (Member of Royal College of Physicians-UK). In the U.S. he did his internship at St. Luke-Roosevelt Hospital in New York and completed his internal medicine residency at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota in 1997. His cardiology and interventional cardiology fellowship training was done at the Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas from 1997 to 2001. Since his training, he has been on the MUSC faculty as an assistant professor of medicine and as a staff physician and director of the cardiac catheterization laboratories at the Ralph H. Johnson VA Medical Center.Dr. Fernandes is board certified in cardiovascular disease and interventional cardiology. He is level III echocardiography trained and certified and also level II nuclear cardiology trained and certified.Dr. Fernandes’ clinical and research interests include complex coronary interventions, rotational atherectomy, vulnerable plaque evaluation and treatment, acute coronary syndromes, alcohol septal ablation for hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy, peripheral arterial intervention and Doppler and transesophageal echocardiography. He is the only certified percutaneous mitral valvuloplasty practitioner in the state of South Carolina.Dr. Fernandes has been a principal investigator in several trials and has also co-authored many publications. He is very active in teaching and medical education and has received many teaching awards and nominations. He is a reviewer for medical journals and a fellow of the American College of Cardiology.