the giving effect  2025      17 
PICTURED  Dr. Stuckey has long mentored the next generation of cardiac specialists, helping shape a culture of teaching 
and innovation at Cone Health Heart & Vascular — one strengthened through donor-supported investments such as the 
Heart & Vascular Innovation Room and the Dr. Thomas D. Stuckey Endowed Chair in Cardiovascular Medicine.
Minimally invasive structural heart procedures. Advanced 
imaging and electrophysiology therapies that correct life-
threatening arrhythmias. AI-enabled imaging that helps 
clinicians detect disease long before symptoms begin.
And for every patient who arrives needing emergent 
treatment, thousands more can now be reached before 
a crisis happens because, alongside Cone Health’s 
legacy of outstanding acute care, a new focus has 
emerged: prevention.
The next frontier
The numbers tell the story: Nearly half of all adults 
have high blood pressure, and rates are climbing 
among children and young adults. While emergency 
angioplasty and structural heart interventions save 
lives every day, the next challenge is to reduce the 
need for them.
Cone Health’s leaders now see the opportunity not only 
to save lives in the moment of crisis, but to prevent that 
crisis from ever occurring. 
“We could keep somebody from having to take a 
pill, having a heart attack, losing a limb, ending up 
on dialysis or having a stroke,” Hochrein says. “It’s 
extremely exciting that we could prevent disease. That’s 
where we’re headed.”
For Stuckey, watching that shift unfold has been one 
of the great rewards of his career. When he arrived, 
Innovators carrying the torch
Decades of pioneering work laid the foundation. Now 
a new slate of innovators is expanding what Heart & 
Vascular care can be. They include: 
DRS. V. WELLS BRABHAM & JAMES ALLRED
Among the first physicians in the United States to implant 
Barostim, a breakthrough device helping heart-failure patients 
who don’t improve with medication.
DR. DANIEL BENSIMHON
A central leader in establishing Cone Health’s ECMO 
capability — lifesaving support for the sickest heart and lung 
patients — made possible through more than $225,000 in 
donor investments. ECMO is available at only about 10% of 
U.S. hospitals.
DR. TIFFANY RANDOLPH
Leads Cone Health’s growing heart-disease prevention 
program, expanding access to lifestyle medicine, shared visits 
and coronary calcium scoring. Supported by philanthropists 
Steve and Jackie Bell — whose historic $7.5 million gift named 
the Steven D. Bell Family Heart & Vascular Center — Randolph 
helped establish the Heart and Vascular Center for Prevention.
DR. KARDIE TOBB
Founder of Cone Health’s Cardio-Obstetrics Clinic, partnering 
with women’s health teams to support mothers with elevated 
cardiovascular risk during pregnancy and beyond. Her work 
advances equity across the region, ensuring world-class heart 
innovation reaches families in every ZIP code.

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