H. Vernon (‘Skip’) Anderson, MD is Professor of Medicine in the Cardiology Division at the University of Texas Health Science Center, McGovern Medical School, and the Memorial Hermann Heart and Vascular Institute, in Houston, Texas. Dr. Anderson was born in New Orleans, Louisiana and raised in the northwest Gulf Coast area of Florida. He obtained his undergraduate degree in electrical engineering and computer science from Georgia Tech, and a master’s degree in electrical engineering from Stanford University. During a six-month break from graduate studies he worked on spacecraft communication systems at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
Changing directions, he entered medical school and graduated from Emory University School of Medicine in 1980, the same year Andreas Gruentzig arrived in Atlanta to join the Emory faculty. It was during his medical residency at Emory that Dr. Anderson decided to pursue a career in cardiology, and he was encouraged by one of his mentors to approach Dr. Gruentzig for a research fellowship position. The fellowship lasted five years and included research, clinical training in cardiology, and procedural training in coronary angioplasty with Drs. Gruentzig, Spencer King, John Douglas, and Gary Roubin.
After his training Dr. Anderson joined the cardiology faculty at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, Texas, to work with Dr. James T. (‘Jim’) Willerson. Two years later, Willerson, Anderson, and several other faculty from Dallas relocated to Houston and the University of Texas Health Science Center there, where Dr. Anderson has remained for over thirty years in a remarkably productive career. He had the good fortune in Houston to participate in numerous large-scale clinical trials involving powerful fibrinolytic drugs and immediate coronary angioplasty, both of them being used to treat heart attacks, and he helped integrate these therapies into the emergency medical response system. Immediate angioplasty is now the standard of care for heart attacks virtually worldwide. He helped develop and test several antiplatelet drugs for inhibiting blood clot formation, and he investigated many other novel drugs and devices developed for coronary artery, cerebral artery, and peripheral artery interventions.
Beginning during his years at Emory, Dr. Anderson worked with the director of the Emory Cardiac Databank, Dr. William (‘Bill’) Weintraub, conducting angioplasty research studies. Later, in the mid-1990’s, Weintraub, Anderson, Charles R. (‘Chuck’) McKay, and Richard (‘Dick’) Shaw together established the American College of Cardiology National Cardiovascular Data Registry. This registry (now a suite of registries) is the world leader in cardiac data organization, with more than 25 million patient files and an unmatched record of research productivity in interventional cardiology. For this work Dr. Anderson received the Distinguished Service Award of the American College of Cardiology in 2014.
From 1993 to 2004, he was an Associate Editor of the journal Circulation, the premier scientific journal published by the American Heart Association. In 2008, he joined the Journal of the American College of Cardiology – Cardiovascular Interventions as an Associate Editor, where he continues today. This unparalleled editorial experience of more than 25 years with major cardiology journals is singularly remarkable.
Dr. Anderson and his wife reside in a suburban area near Houston. They enjoy traveling, small-ship cruises, hiking in national parks, and bird watching.
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