Suksaranjit to succeed Benson as ICVA Section Chief in Cardiology

The following announcement comes from Bradley Dixon, MD, Professor of Internal Medicine and Chief of Medicine, Iowa City VA Health Care System (ICVA).

We wish to announce that Dr. Chris Benson, Professor of Medicine at Carver College of Medicine and staff physician at the ICVA, stepped down as the Cardiology Section Chief on July 1, 2022, and turned over the reins to the new interim Section Chief, Dr. Pat Suksaranjit.

Dr. Benson has served as the Cardiology Section Chief for seven years. He has overseen the growth of both clinical and research programs in the Section. Over his tenure, Dr. Benson has helped us recruit many talented cardiologists to the ICVA, including Dr. Suksaranjit. Benson was instrumental in helping to initiate the EP service and expand the heart failure and interventional cardiology services. He worked with anesthesia to improve the collaboration between those services. He has helped with the design and plans for Cardiology to move into its new clinical space on the second floor. With the transition to the Referral Coordination Initiative, consult volumes have grown dramatically putting a strain on cardiology services, which he has helped us to manage. He also has maintained VA research funding for his laboratory through a VA Merit Review grant. He currently serves as the Program Director for Clinical Services at UI Health Care and will continue on in this role as well as continuing to provide clinical services and mentorship at the ICVA. We will miss his steady leadership of this very large and important Section at the ICVA.

The baton will pass to Dr. Pat Suksaranjit, Assistant Professor of Medicine at Carver College of Medicine and staff physician at the ICVA, to take the lead as the Interim Section Chief for Cardiology. Dr. Suksaranjit received his MD from Mahidol University in India and did his Internal Medicine Residency at Columbia University in New York before completing Fellowships in Cardiology and Advance Cardiovascular Imaging as well as an MS in Clinical Investigation all at the University of Utah. Dr. Suksaranjit joined the ICVA four years ago in 2018 and quickly has demonstrated his clinical acumen and quiet leadership. He is highly respected by his colleagues and staff. His particular area of expertise is in cardiac imaging, but he also attends in cardiology clinic and the inpatient consult service. Among many exciting challenges, Dr. Suksaranjit will help us move into the new space on the second floor, further expand EP, heart failure, cardiac imaging, and interventional services at the ICVA and expand cardiology services into the community – starting with the Davenport Community Based Outpatient Clinic.