Dr. Gabriel Hernandez is a University Heart interventional cardiologist who specializes in advanced heart failure and transplant and serves as an associate program director for the cardiology fellowship program.

What is your professional background?

I graduated from medical school at the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia in Lima, Peru. I then did one year of postgraduate research fellowship at Vanderbilt University’s Autonomic Dysfunction Center.  I completed internal medicine residency and cardiology fellowship training at the University of Miami – Jackson Memorial Hospital program, where I served as chief fellow. Following my cardiology training, I completed a fellowship in Advanced Heart Failure and Transplant Cardiology at Vanderbilt University and Interventional Cardiology back at the University of Miami.

Tell us about what you do at UMMC.

I work in the Division of Cardiology as an assistant professor of medicine. I spend my days balancing work between the cardiac catheterization laboratory, the advanced heart failure service or in the Pavilion’s outpatient cardiology clinic.

By combining interventional cardiology and heart failure, I was placed in a unique position to help grow UMMC’s cardiogenic shock and temporary mechanical circulatory support program, the cardiac intensive care unit, and the pulmonary embolism response team. It is a real pleasure to work with such extraordinary colleagues who lead the field in our state-of-the-art, University Heart Center.  

What advice would you give to someone pursuing medicine today?

Medicine can be a long career (and this comes from someone who has done 4 fellowships) however is the most rewarding career that exists. I say, find what you love in medicine and be good at it. It does not matter how long it takes to get there because once you do, you can make a difference, wherever you are.

What do you like most about UMMC?

UMMC is unique in that it acts as both the largest and only academic and teaching hospital for the state. Here we not only see the most complex cases, which are an invaluable experience for our trainees, but also we can provide care that could not otherwise be delivered in our state.  For example, we are the only transplant center for the state of Mississippi. 

Tell us something about yourself that people may not know.

I got recently married; we have the best dog ever, Qori (Means “Golden” in Quechua, Inca’s language) a 2-year-old lab. We are expecting our first baby girl, Olivia, in March 2022!