Barry T. Katzen is one of the founders of the medical specialty of interventional radiology. He pioneered, along with other procedures, percutaneous transluminal angioplasty for peripheral, renal and other parts of the arterial and venous circulation, as well as vascular procedures such as transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt (TIPS), aortic endografting and transcatheter embolization. He was part of the investigative team that led to the approval of the first intravascular stent and is credited as having performed the first renal angioplasty in the United States. Dr. Katzen is also a pioneer in procedural education, having been the first in the U.S. to develop and evolve the use of video technology to perform live procedures and transmit them interactively to a physician audience in 1978. He has published extensively in the scientific literature, having authored more than 200 peer reviewed publications and edited four textbooks. He is the founder of the journal Techniques in Vascular and Interventional Radiology and has been an invited lecturer and procedural teacher in various countries around the world.
As the founding chairman of the Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine (HWCOM) Department of Interventional Radiology, Dr. Katzen has spearheaded considerable work to integrate interventional radiology into the course curriculum while creating extensive shadowing and research opportunities for the school’s medical students. Dr. Katzen is also founder and chief medical executive emeritus of Miami Cardiac & Vascular Institute, a system-wide center of excellence that is part of Baptist Health, the largest health care system in South Florida. Since its establishment in 1987 and under Dr. Katzen’s leadership, Miami Cardiac & Vascular Institute has served as a national model of success in multidisciplinary cooperation and is one of the nation’s leading cardiac and vascular institutions in which interventional radiology has driven innovation and improvement in patient care.
Dr. Katzen graduated from the University of Miami School of Medicine in 1970. He completed an internship in internal medicine at Jackson Memorial Hospital, residency in diagnostic radiology at the New York Hospital/Cornell Medical Center and fellowship in cardiovascular radiology at St. Vincent’s Hospital Medical Center and the University of Rome. His time training in Europe greatly influenced his perspective about innovation and patient care. Dr. Katzen has had a longstanding interest in clinical research. He has served as national site principal investigator for clinical trials in the study of aneurysms, carotid artery disease, and peripheral vascular disease, as well as been involved in the development of numerous devices for less invasive vascular therapy. Dr. Katzen is past President of the Society of Interventional Radiology (SIR) as well as the Peripheral Vascular Section of the American Heart Association. Dr. Katzen has received numerous awards, including the Society of Interventional Radiology's Gold Medal for Lifetime Achievement. He was the first American to receive the annual Gold Medal award from the Cardiovascular and Interventional Radiological Society of Europe (CIRSE) for his distinguished achievements in the field of interventional radiology, both in the United States and worldwide. In 2007 he received the Career Achievement Award at the Transcatheter Therapeutics Conference (TCT) for his worldwide leadership in endovascular medicine and for pioneering live case education in the United States. Dr. Katzen was awarded the Gold Medal of the University of Miami Alumni Association and subsequently was inducted into the medical school’s “Hall of Fame,” only the fourth such honoree in medical school history at that time. In 2011 he received the Julius H. Jacobson II M.D. Award for Physician Excellence by the Vascular Disease Foundation. Dr. Katzen has also been awarded the Cor Vitae Heart Award and the American Heart Association Distinguished Achievement Award. To honor his lifetime work and achievements in the field of interventional radiology, the Cook Family established the “Barry T. Katzen Endowed Medical Directorship” at Miami Cardiac & Vascular Institute in 2007. He has been awarded honorary memberships in the Chinese Society of Interventional Radiology, the Asia Pacific Society of Cardiovascular and Interventional Radiology, as well as the German, Austrian and Swiss Societies of Vascular Surgery.