Michael Taylor, MD, PhD, appointed chief of Cardiology

Michael Taylor MD, PhD, is the new chief of the Division of Cardiology at Children’s National. Dr. Taylor will join the Heart and Lung Center at Children’s National from the Texas Center for Pediatric and Congenital Heart Disease at Dell Children’s Medical Center in Austin, Texas, where he served as director of non-invasive imaging.

“I am looking forward to joining this storied program that has a reputation for talented faculty and great cardiac surgery,” Dr. Taylor says. “Together, I hope we can continue to raise the profile of the Heart and Lung Center as a world class referral destination for pediatric cardiac care and research.”

Dr. Taylor has particular expertise in imaging for pediatric congenital and acquired heart conditions and is committed to advancing the use of noninvasive multimodality imaging in the clinical care of all patients with heart conditions. He is internationally known for his research on the use of advanced imaging techniques to study congenital heart disease and inherited cardiomyopathies. His work in cardiac magnetic resonance (MR) imaging has provided insight into heart muscle diseases and led to innovative cardiac imaging methods for clinical surveillance and therapeutic trials in Duchenne muscular dystrophy. His previous work also includes the creation of pulse sequences and image reconstruction techniques to improve the clarity of cardiac MR imaging for the smallest and most vulnerable infants and children with heart conditions.

Dr. Taylor is a fellow of the American College of Cardiology and the Society of Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance. He earned his medical degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a doctorate in medical physics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He completed both an internship and residency in pediatrics, as well as a fellowship in pediatric cardiology with subspecialty training in advanced imaging and cardiac magnetic resonance, at Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children’s Hospital.

“I have known Dr. Taylor for many years and been continually impressed by his steady leadership, collaborative spirit and commitment to academic medicine,” says Wayne J. Franklin, MD, MBA, senior vice president of the Children’s National Heart and Lung Center. “I am confident that he will be an outstanding leader for the Division of Cardiology at Children’s National.”