Tom Lassar, MD

Dr. Lassar is professor of medicine, University of Arizona College of Medicine Clinical Scholar Track, and a clinical and interventional cardiologist at Banner University Medicine North and Banner University Medical Center South. He completed his undergraduate bachelor of arts degree at Washington University in St. Louis cum laude and his medical doctor (MD) magna cum laude in 1977 from St. Louis University School of Medicine, where he was president of the Alpha Omega Alpha Chapter. He then returned to Washington University Barnes-Jewish Hospital for residency in internal medicine, in which he is board certified, and subsequently completed training and board certification in cardiovascular diseases at University of Chicago Hospitals and Clinics. He is subspecialty board certified in interventional cardiology.

In 1982, Dr. Lassar began a career in clinical care and clinical research, and collaborated with the founders of the field of interventional cardiology, now a subspecialty of cardiovascular disease, then in its infancy. As assistant professor of medicine at University of Wisconsin Milwaukee Clinical Campus Aurora St. Luke's-Sinai-Samaritan Hospitals, he was co-director of cardiac catheterization and intervention, developing research interests and publishing in the areas of coronary flow and physiology, management of acute and chronic ischemic heart disease, advanced coronary imaging and new device development. In 1988, he was recruited to serve as director of cardiac catheterization and intervention at Mt. Sinai Medical Center of Cleveland, and subsequently served as associate professor of medicine and associate director of adult cardiac catheterization and intervention from 1997 until 2013 at University Hospitals of Cleveland, Case Western Reserve Medical School of Medicine, before joining the medical staff at University of Arizona in 2014.

Dr. Lassar has continued to focus his clinical and academic interests in the development of new coronary devices and platforms, vascular closure devices, platelet pharmacology, application of platelet function testing to clinical management of coronary artery disease, and clinical trials of new generation antiplatelet drugs. Dr. Lassar is an active member of the American College of Cardiology (ACC) and was an elected member of the Ohio ACC Board of Governors. He is a fellow of the American Heart Association (AHA), and Society for Cardiac Angiography and Interventions (SCAI), having served on multiple leadership and steering committees during his career.