Stacey Titus • June 28, 2023
HCMA Welcomes our newest Center of Excellence 
Stacey Titus

Allegheny Health Network HCM program is the HCMA’s newest Recognized Center of Excellence. AHN is a multi-disciplinary team of cardiovascular specialists trained in diagnosing and treating hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. The AHN team will provide patients with a comprehensive assessment and conduct a diagnostic test to determine the most appropriate therapy. Team members collaborate to provide patients with coordinated care, education, and support, including but not limited to heart failure specialists, cardiac surgeons, cardiac electrophysiologists, cardiac imagine specialists, interventional cardiologists, nurses, advanced practice providers, genetic counselors, dietitians rehabilitation specialists, high-risk obstetricians, and supportive care specialists. The HCM programs offer medical therapy, interventional therapy, such as alcohol septal ablation, and surgical therapy, such as septal myectomy. AHN also offers enrollment in clinical trials investigating new therapies for HCM. Program Director Pietro Bajona, MD, Ph.D. – Cardiac Surgeon trained at the Mayo Clinic and University of Toronto HCm programs and served as Surgical Director of the HCM Program at UTSW in Dallas, TX, before starting the HCM program at Allegheny General Hospital.

Program Director/Director of Cariac Surgery- Dr. Pietro Bajona

Co-Director/Advanced Heart Failure and Transplant- Dr. Craig Alpert

Cardiac Surgery – Dr. Stephen Bailey, MD

Interventional Cardiology – Dr. David Lasorda

Interventional Cardiology – Dr. Mithun Chavarthy

Advanced Cardiac Imaging (MRI) – Dr. Victor Farah

Advanced Cardiac Imaging (Echo) – Dr. Rachel Hughes-Doichev

Cardiac Electrophysiology – Dr. George Shaw

Pediatric Cardiology – Dr. Brian Feingold (UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh)

Nursing Team –  Jennifer Keely, DNP, & Kathleen Ridgeway, RN

Genetic – Kyla Morphy

Pediatric Cardiology – Dr. Brian Feingold (UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh)

Nutrition- Nonnie Toth

Gynecology & Family Planning – Dr. Diego Vasquez & Dr. Devon Ramaeker

Please visit for more information about Allegheny General Hosptial HCM Program –  Pittsburgh, PA please visit:  https://4hcm.org/directory/


For more information on all HCMA Recognized Centers of Excellence, please visit  https://4hcm.org/center-of-excellence/.

HCMA Blog

Lisa's Letter - July Newsletter

By Lisa Salberg • July 3, 2025
Summer, greetings to all our big-hearted friends As July approaches, our focus is already on the fall and preparing for some major events, including our annual meeting coming up in October. July will also find us on the west coast in Seattle conducting a regional patient education meeting as part of our big-hearted warrior tour. We have been following the generic drug quality issue in the United States very closely and encourage you to watch the series starting with our Hill briefing in April and following with the additional webinars with our partners at Medshadow and the People's Pharmacy, and of course the ProPublica series of articles. See them all here . We are happy to have a new team member on board - we welcome Pam as our coordinator of both our All Hearts Collaborative and Hearts and Minds project. Over the next few months, you're going to be learning more about these two amazing initiatives and how we are working to provide better services for big hearts regardless of where you live, so we are meeting all of our big-hearted friends where they are. Please stay tuned for updates from these projects coming soon. We are also creating new volunteer opportunities and engagements that we hope will make it easier for you to participate in spreading the message of the importance of diagnosis, the importance of community readiness related to CPR and AED use and, of course, helping patients get to their ultimate diagnosis and getting them on the proper treatment pathways. This July I would like to recognize all of the special birthdays in my family, including HCMA Center of Excellence coordinator, Stacey Titus-brown and my daughter Rebecca Salberg. It's a milestone birthday for Becca - it’s hard to believe I have a 30-year-old child. Wishing you all a happy and healthy summer. Go build some memories!
An official seal in black & red with white letters that say HCMS Recognized Centers of Excellence

July's Topic is COE Care at the HCMA

By Sabrina Cuddy • July 3, 2025
Getting HCM care at a HCMA Recognized Center of Excellence has a positive impact on patient's outcomes. Find out why in the post by Health Educator Sabrina Cuddy

Pro Publica Releases Results of FDA Investigation

By Erica Friedman • June 26, 2025
Investigative journalists Debbie Cenziper, Megan Rose, Brandon Roberts and Irena Hwang from Pro Publica and NPR have concluded a 14-month long investigation into the quality of generic drugs coming into the United States from overseas. Among the many voices that spoke up for American patients was HCMA Founder and CEO, Lisa Salberg who has felt the effects of low-quality drugs personally. Salberg believes that fixing this problem is something we can do, even in this time, when even health care is highly politicized. Read the key takeaways from ProPublica’s 14-month investigation into the FDA’s oversight of foreign drugmakers in Threat in Your Medicine Cabinet: The FDA’s Gamble on America’s Drugs .
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