Top Doc: Locals named to Best Doctors in America list

Dr. Richard Abben and Dr. Peter Fail of the Cardiovascular Institute of the South (CIS) were named to the 2015-2016® Best Doctors in America List, a prestigious recognition decided by the physicians’ peers. Doctors in more than 40 specialities and 400 subspecialties of medicine appear on the 2015-2016 list.

Abben is an interventional cardiologist and electrophysiologist whose specialities focus on non-invasive cardiovascular procedures and the heartbeat. In 1998, he became one of the South’s first implanters of a cardiac resynchronization biventricular pacemaker, a device used to treat advanced heart failure. He also organizes and directs physician’s training courses in device therapy and co-directs an international cardiology symposium, “Principles and Perspectives in Interventional Cardiology”, that attracts leading minds in the field each year.

He earned his medical degree from the University of Illinois’ Abraham Lincoln Medical School and joined the CIS staff in 1988. He is board certified in internal medicine and cardiovascular diseases with a subspecialty certification in cardiac electrophysiology and interventional cardiology. He also serves as the director of the Cardiac Intervention and Arrhythmia Center.

“This recognition really reflects well not only on me, but on the many folks that help in my practice on a daily basis both at CIS and TGMC, a dedicated group that puts the patient first day in and day out,” Abben said. “I could not accomplish anything without these wonderful people and friends…In addition, the recognition would not mean anything if I was not able to treat and interact with my great patients…It is a genuine privilege to be their physician.”

Abben credits his interest in medicine to time spent during his first year of medical school assisting an internal medicine physician who imparted a great deal of cutting-edge knowledge to him, including details in the areas of CV diagnosis, auscultation and reading ECGs.

“My fascination with the speciality developed from then on and certainly there are few medical specialities that have evolved in a more fascinating and rewarding manner over the past thirty years with resulting, incredible therapeutic options that cold not have previously been imagined,” he explained. “I feel lucky to be a part of it.”

Fail is an interventional cardiologist, serving as director of the Terrebonne General Medical Center Cardiac Catheterization Lab and Interventional Research. He is also the Computed Tomography Medical Director at CIS.

He works heavily with the Structural Heart Program in Houma, the only program of its kind in the state that participates in research trials and treatments for valve disorders and structural heart defects. In July, Fail became one of the first physicians in the state, alongside cardiovascular surgeon Dr. Edgar Feinberg, to perform a heart valve implantation using the CoreValve Evolut R System, a minimally invasive option for patients with severe narrowing of the aortic valve. He also pioneered the use of the MitraClip, an alternative method to open heart surgery to fix mitral valve regurgitation. He was also the first to perform deployment of a custom, perforated endograft, a less invasive approach to treating abdominal aortic aneurysms.

He earned his medical degree from the American University of the Caribbean in Montserrat, British Indies. He joined the CIS staff in 1996 and is board certified in internal medicine, cardiovascular disease and interventional cardiology. He is level three certified in the cardiovascular computed tomography experience program.

Fail said the recognition is a huge honor, especially coming from his peers. He remembered his first moment of interest in the medical field came from watching his mother work in doctors offices for many years. It was during medical school that he discovered his passion for cardiology.

“When I went through residency, cardiology at our hospital was “The Service,” Fail explained. “Angioplasty had just started and being able to take patients and make them better without open heart was really cool.”

Best Doctors, Inc., a global health solutions company established in 1989 to help individuals obtain the right diagnosis and treatment, polls more than 40,000 American physicians on who within their field they would refer loved ones in need of a doctor in their own speciality. Only the top five percent of physicians practicing in the United States earn the honor of being selected.

The database is released every two years and physicians cannot pay to be on the list. They must be nominated by a current Best Doctor to be considered for the recognition.

The doctors that receive this prestigious honor are nominated, reviewed and after a polling process of over 40,000 physicians, which has been audited and certified by Gallup® , selectees’ names are compiled into the Best Doctors in America® database.

Other doctors included in the 2015-2016 list from Lafourche and Terrebonne parishes, first published in New Orleans Magazine and Louisiana Life, are: Michael Robichaux, Sr. (Southern ENT Associates, Raceland), Henry M. Peltier (Center for Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, Thibodaux), Maria Cruse (Thibodaux Regional Medical Center, Department of Psychiatry), Gregory Dobard (Thibodaux Regional Medical Center, Department of Radiology), Tommy L. Fudge (Heart and Vascular Center, Thibodaux), Chester Frank Weimer (Thibodaux Urological Specialists, Thibodaux), Jorge J. Bravo (Thibodaux Regional Medical Center, Department of Anesthesiology), Douglas B. Harris (Family Doctor Clinic, Thibodaux), Charles J. Monier Jr. (Digestive Health Center, Thibodaux), Laura Casteel Campbell (Cancer Center of Thibodaux Regional Medical Center, Division of Hematology and Oncology), James K. Ellis (Cancer Center of Thibodaux Regional Medical Center, Division of Hematology and Oncology), Allen W. Vander (Thibodaux Regional Medical Center, Department of Nephrology), Neil James Maki (Thibodaux Orthopaedic and Sports Medicine Clinic, Thibodaux), James Vance Broussard (Southern ENT Associates, Thibodaux), Paul Thomas Gaudet (Southern ENT Associates, Thibodaux), Justin M. Tenney (Southern ENT Associates, Thibodaux), Guy Paul Zeringue III (Southern ENT Associates, Thibodaux), Paul Truett Ray Jr. (Thibodaux, Urological Specialists, Thibodaux), Mary Louise Eschete (Ochsner Leonard J. Chabert Medical Center, Special Car Clinic, Division of Infectious Disease, Houma), Shaminder M. Gupta (Ochsner Leonard J. Chabert Medical Center, Special Care Clinic, Department of Nephrology, Houma), Bedford Nieves-Cruz (Terrebonne General Medical Center, Division of Neonatology), Kimberly Barner (Bayou Pediatric Associates, Houma),Richard Louis Brooke (Ochsner Leonard J. Chabert Medical Center, Pediatric Clinic, Houma), Robert W. Clarke, Jr. (Bayou Pediatric Associates, Houma), Bernard Ferrer (Bayou Pediatric Associates, Houma), Ruthanne R. Gallagher (Bayou Pediatric Associates, Houma), Edgar L. Feinberg II (Cardiovascular Clinic of Houma), Robert M. Alexander (Houma SurgiCenter, Houma). •

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