Dr. Follansbee's career focus has been as a clinician - educator, but he has also participated actively in research. Early in his career, his research focused on cardiac involvement in systemic diseases, particularly systemic sclerosis. His research interests in nuclear cardiology were in the application of the technologies to study pathophysiology of diseases. In more recent years, his participation in research has been in facilitating projects of colleagues and particularly younger faculty members. The initiative in medical decision making has resulted in multiple national presentations by younger faculty members in the last couple years, featuring that project.
Dr. Follansbee is the Master Clinician Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine, an endowed Chair established in his name. He has been an attending cardiologist in the cardiac intensive care unit for more than 30 years. As a general cardiologist, he sees patients with a wide range of cardiac diseases, particularly acute or chronic coronary artery disease, valvular heart disease, cardiomyopathy, or arrhythmias. He has a specialized interest in cardiac involvement in systemic diseases, with a particular interest in cardiac amyloidosis. He is a nuclear cardiologist who was Director of the Nuclear Cardiology Department for 30 years until he stepped down to become Director of the UPMC Clinical Center for Medical Decision Making.
Dr.Follansbee has been in every selection of Pittsburgh's Top Doctors since the original edition in 1992, and has been selected to the Best Doctors in America every year since 1996, has been elected as one of America's Top Doctor every year since the first edition in 2001. He was the 2008 recipient of the American Heart Association Peter J Safar Pulse of Pittsburgh Award. He has a 5 star patient satisfaction rating.
Dr. Follansbee has been extensively involved in education throughout his career. As Director of a Nuclear Cardiology Preceptorship Program, Dr. Follansbee developed and personally taught a 3 day preceptorship program in nuclear cardiology six times a year for many years. At the present time, as Director of the UMPC Clinical Center for Medical Decision Making, he is heavily involved in teaching medical decision making with a goal of reducing diagnostic error and improving diagnostic efficiency. Under the auspices of a grant from the Hearst Foundations and working with a team of leading faculty educators in the Department of General Medicine, he has led an extensive educational initiative in medical decision making in the Department of Medicine Internal Medicine Residency training program. Through this dynamic collaborative effort, a preliminary curriculum in medical decision making was developed and preliminarily implemented in a controlled fashion in the training program in order to be able to study its effectiveness. Teaching of medical decision making has been actively integrated into attending rounds, morning report, and M&M conference, among other settings. Chairman's rounds has been transformed to a new format featuring medical decision making. Dr. Follansbee has been leading a faculty team that has been actively developing an on-line curriculum in medical decision making, which will be implemented this year.
- BA, Princeton University, 1970
- MD, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, 1974
- Resident, Medicine, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, 1976
- Fellow, Cardiology, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, 1977
- Fellow, Cardiology, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, 1979
Education & Training
Soman P, Rajagopalan M, Ahmad F, Ruszkiewicz M, Follansbee WP. Attenuation Correction Improves Specificity of Myocardial Perfusion Imaging: Analysis without Verification Bias. Journal of Nuclear Cardiology. 2008; 15: S15.
Gorcsan J 3rd, Lazar JM, Schulman DS, Follansbee WP. Comparison of left ventricular function by echocardiographic automated border detection and by radionuclide ejection fraction. Am J Cardiol. 1993 Oct 1;72(11):810-5. PMID: 8213514.
Follansbee WP, Kiernan JM, Curtiss EI, Zerbe TR, Mock C, Kormos RL. Changes in left ventricular systolic function that accompany rejection of the transplanted heart: a serial radionuclide assessment of fifty-three consecutive cases. Am Heart J. 1991 Feb;121(2 Pt 1):548-56. PMID: 1990762.
Follansbee WP, Zerbe TR, Medsger TA Jr. Cardiac and skeletal muscle disease in systemic sclerosis (scleroderma): a high risk association. Am Heart J. 1993 Jan;125(1):194-203. PMID: 8417518.
Follansbee WP, Miller TR, Curtiss EI, Orie JE, Bernstein RL, Kiernan JM, Medsger TA Jr. A controlled clinicopathologic study of myocardial fibrosis in systemic sclerosis (scleroderma). J Rheumatol. 1990 May;17(5):656-62. PMID: 2359076.
Owens GR, Follansbee WP. The Cardiopulmonary Manifestations of Scleroderma. Chest. 1987; 91: 118-127.
Lavine SJ, Shreiner DP, Krishnaswami V, Amidi M, Follansbee WP. Simplified count-based estimates of left ventricular volume. Clin Nucl Med. 1986 Mar;11(3):168-74. PMID: 3006966.
Follansbee WP, Curtiss EI, Rahko PS, Medsger TA Jr, Lavine SJ, Owens GR, Steen VD. The electrocardiogram in systemic sclerosis (scleroderma). Study of 102 consecutive cases with functional correlations and review of the literature. Am J Med. 1985 Aug;79(2):183-92. doi: 10.1016/0002-9343(85)90008-7. PMID: 3161326.
Follansbee WP, Curtiss EI, Medsger TA Jr, Owens GR, Steen VD, Rodnan GP. Myocardial function and perfusion in the CREST syndrome variant of progressive systemic sclerosis. Exercise radionuclide evaluation and comparison with diffuse scleroderma. Am J Med. 1984 Sep;77(3):489-96. PMID: 6475990.
Follansbee WP, Curtiss EI, Medsger TA Jr, Steen VD, Uretsky BF, Owens GR, Rodnan GP. Physiologic abnormalities of cardiac function in progressive systemic sclerosis with diffuse scleroderma. N Engl J Med. 1984 Jan 19;310(3):142-8. PMID: 6690931.
- Pittsburgh Top Doctor, 1992-present
- Best Doctors in America, 1996-present
- America's Top Doctors, 2001-present
- The Peter J. Safar Pulse of Pittsburgh Award, American Heart Association, 2008
