Internationally recognized cardiologist Richard R. Heuser, MD, died Thursday. He was 73. “Rich was a great innovator through his career, living and breathing interventional cardiology. He was a special friend and key contributor and supporter to CRT for many years. He will be sorely missed,” said Ron Waksman, MD, the director of cardiovascular research and advanced education at MedStar Heart and Vascular Institute in Washington, D.C. Born in Milwaukee, Dr. Heuser attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison and received his medical education at the Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Heuser was frequently known as the “Top Doc.” In 1999, he was labeled the Top Cardiologist by the largest hospital system worldwide: the Columbia HCA System. He participated in the 40th anniversary of angioplasty in Zurich, Switzerland, was awarded the Top Innovation award Cardiovascular Research Technologies (CRT) 2016 and was named Physician of the Year in 2016 by Arizona Business Magazine. Dr. Heuser was an early pioneer of coronary and peripheral angioplasty and a diplomat for the American Board of Cardiovascular Diseases and the American Board of Interventional Cardiovascular Diseases. He created the first catheter treatment for mitral valve leakage. Additionally, as the principal investigator for numerous studies, Dr. Heuser led teams in evaluating more than 100 medical devices and 50 pharmaceutical products. He also authored countless articles, textbooks, medical manuscripts and conference presentations. Dr. Heuser was known for his passion for his work, humor and devotion to his family, “Especially to his beautiful wife, Shari,” his obituary reads. “I first met Rich when he was a site PI [principal investigator] in the STRESS trial that led to the approval of the PS [Palmaz-Schatz] stent in the US in the early 1990s,” David J. Cohen, MD, MSc, the director of clinical and outcomes research at the Cardiovascular Research Foundation and director of academic affairs at the St. Francis Hospital & Heart Center in Roslyn, New York, said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. “Throughout his career, he remained deeply committed to innovation in interventional cardiology. My deepest condolences to his family.” “I am deeply saddened by the loss of my mentor and friend @richard_heuser,” said Nachiket Patel, MD, an interventional cardiologist at the Phoenix Heart Center,” in another X post. “He was an amazing interventional cardiologist, and an even better human being. I will miss his funny stories, discussing interesting cases, getting hounded if I wasn’t done with an editorial and the deadline was approaching, hearing cath lab stories from ‘the old days,’ and talking politics to get him a little riled up.” Dr. Heuser is survived by his wife, Shari; daughter, Alexandra; siblings, Dinny Cosyns and Peter and Nancy Heuser; and three grandchildren. Image Credit: Courtesy of Shari Heuser