The Johns Hopkins Right Ventricular Dysplasia Program was formed in order to provide specialized evaluation and care for patients with ARVD/C. The program, headed by Dr. Hugh Calkins, also focuses on clinical and genetic research.

Our Staff

Hugh Calkins, MD is the Director of the Arrhythmias Service and the Clinical Electrophysiology Laboratory. He sees patients, reviews medical records, and is available for consultation.

Philip Spevak, MD is the Pediatric Cardiologist coordinating efforts to learn more about testing children for ARVD with echocardiography. Dr. Spevak is available for consultation.

Jane Crosson, MD is a pediatric cardiologist with special interests in pediatric rhythm disturbances, pacemakers, syncope and fetal cardiology. She is available for consultations regarding ARVD

Hal Dietz, MD is a Pediatric Cardiologist and Geneticist who runs a molecular research laboratory. He will be conducting the research on DNA samples obtained from patients with ARVD.

Daniel Judge , MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine, is a heart failure specialist with a research interest in familial cardiomyopathies. Dr. Judge is conducting research on DNA samples obtained from patients with ARVD.

Stuart Russell, MD is the clinical director of The Johns Hopkins Cardiomyopathy and Heart Transplantation Practice. He has a special interest in the effects of exercise, heart failure, and new therapies for heart failure.

Theodore Abraham, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine, is a cardiologist who recently joined the faculty at Johns Hopkins. His expertise is in echocardiography imaging techniques, in particular, how to visualize the right ventricle.

David Bluemke, MD, PhD is a radiologist working on quantifying cardiac MRIs in order to improve the diagnostic value of this test. He is serves as the core MRI laboratory for the NIH-funded Multidisciplinary Study of Right Ventricular Dysplasia.

Cynthia James, ScM, PhD joined the program in September 2002 and is one of the ARVD Program Coordinators. She is a genetic counselor/geneticist and coordinates various research projects. She also coordinates patient appointments and writes grants for future projects.

Crystal Tichnell, MGC joined the program in June 2002 and is one of the ARVD Program Coordinators, as well as a genetic counselor. She coordinates clinical and research activities by scheduling patients and enrolling patients in various research projects.

April Tucker, MGC worked with ARVD program from May 2005 until May 2006 as a genetic counselor. She coordinated clinical and research activities by scheduling patients and enrolling patients in various research projects.

Hari Tandri , MD joined the program in August 2001 as a Post-doctoral Fellow. His main focus was on imaging techniques and developing methods to quantify abnormalities seen on echocardiography and magnetic resonance imaging. Dr. Tandri was accepted into the Electrophysiology Fellowship program here at Hopkins and continues to work on various research projects on ARVD.

Khurram Nasir , MD , MPH joined the program in July 2001 as a Research Fellow. He spent vast amounts of time organizing our data and providing data analysis for all of our research projects. His main focus was ECG and Signal Averaged ECG characteristics in ARVD. Dr. Nasir began his Residency in Internal Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh in 2005.

Chandra Bomma, MD joined the program in September 2002 as a Post-doctoral Fellow. He worked on studies involved in developing methods to quantify abnormalities seen on magnetic resonance imaging, as well as computerized tomagraphy scan. In addition, he also worked on the ICD Firing Study. Dr. Bomma began his Clinical Cardiology Fellowship in July 2005 at the Oshner Clinic in New Orleans , LA.

Darshan Dalal, MD, MPH joined the program in June 2003 and is our database manager. He has redesigned our research database and continuously organizes our data.  He has published a number of abstracts and manuscripts and provides statistical support for various research projects.

Kalpana Prakasa, MD worked with the ARVD program from October 2003 until October 2006 as one of our Post-doctoral Fellows. She studied the usefulness of holter monitoring and echocardiography in ARVD patients as well as family members.  Dr. Prakasa continues to work at Johns Hopkins in the echocardiography department.

Jackie Kaczmarczyk joined the program in November 2003 as an administrative assistant. She also assists in coordinating some of our research projects, in addition to tracking the budget and organizing various aspects of our annual ARVD seminar.