The Legendary George W. Vetrovec

A successful fundraising campaign for the VCU Pauley Heart Center

George W. Vetrovec, M.D., is a legend on the MCV Campus — renowned for his tireless dedication to his patients, his trainees and the division. As chair since 1993, and Martha M. and Harold W. Kimmerling M.D. Chair in Cardiology since 2005, he has been instrumental in growing the Division of Cardiology into the Pauley Heart Center — a highly integrated research, teaching and clinical care enterprise that is recognized as one of the top cardiovascular disease centers in the country.

Vetrovec is equally renowned on the world stage of cardiology. A prodigious scholar, he has contributed more than 500 articles and abstracts, as well as two books and 23 book chapters, to the field of cardiovascular medicine. He also has educated and inspired countless cardiac professionals through presentations and seminars in hundreds of venues across the U. S., Canada, Europe, Africa and Asia.

To realize his vision of a pre-eminent heart center, Vetrovec has organized and led two major fundraising campaigns totaling in excess of $16.25 million. In recognition of the largest single donation, $5 million from the Pauley Family Foundation, the VCU Heart Center became the Pauley Heart Center in 2006 and one of the few named major heart centers in the nation.

The success of the campaigns is attributable in large part to another Vetrovec innovation — the Cardiology Consortium. Comprising 350 heart center donors, many of whom are former patients of Vetrovec and his MCV Campus colleagues, Cardiology Consortium members are kept informed about progress at Pauley Heart Center, and they meet annually to learn about advances in cardiovascular medicine.

“The impact that the philanthropic community has had on Pauley Heart Center cannot be understated,” Vetrovec said. “We are where we are today — in terms of the high quality of our faculty, trainees and nursing staff, the vitality of our research endeavor, and the depth and breadth of our clinical programs — because of private support. These generous and caring individuals provide the margin of excellence, the difference between good and great. They are the best partners our heart center could have, and we can never say thank you enough.”