William Dec

Dr. Dec was born and raised in Washington, DC. He attended Georgetown University and received his MD degree from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in 1978. He completed his medical residency and fellowship training in Cardiovascular Diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital. He joined the staff at Mass General in 1984 and served as Medical Director of the Mass General Heart Failure and Heart Transplantation program from 1984 until 2003. He served as Chief of the Cardiology Division and Co-Director of the Mass General Heart Center from 2003 to 2014. He remains an active member of the clinical staff. Dr. Dec is the Roman DeSanctis Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.

Clinical Interests

• Dilated cardiomyopathies
• Congestive heart failure
• Myocarditis

Medical Education

• MD, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
• Residency, Massachusetts General Hospital
• Fellowship, Massachusetts General Hospital

Board Certifications

• Cardiovascular Disease
• Internal Medicine

Research Summary

In 1984, Dr. Dec initiated the Mass General Heart Failure and Cardiac Transplant Program which has become one of the most active programs in New England. His research interests have focused upon the diagnosis and treatment of dilated cardiomyopathy, lymphocytic and granulomatous myocarditis, advanced heart failure and cardiac transplant management. He established the heart failure clinical trials program and has served as Principal Investigator for over four dozen trials of novel heart failure pharmacological agents.

Dec has edited three textbooks in his fields of expertise: Cardiac Allograft Rejection, Heart Failure: A Comprehensive Guide to Diagnosis and Management, and Heart Failure Clinics of America: Update on Myocarditis Diagnosis and Treatment. He serves on the Editorial Boards of the Journal of Cardiac Failure and The Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Dec serves as site Principal Investigator for a National of Institute of Health Clinical Skills Core Development grant as part of the overall Heart Failure Network and as site Principal Investigator on a second NIH grant evaluating the clinical characteristics and genetics of recovery of acute dilated cardiomyopathy.

Among Dec's awards include: Phi Beta Kappa (1974), Alpha Omega Alpha (1978), the Nathaniel Bowditch Award (2006) and Partners in Excellence Awards (2006, 2007, 2009, 2010).

Publications

• Ajiiola O, Nandigam KV, Chabner BA, Orencole M, Dec, GW, Ruskin JN, Singh JP. Usefulness of cardiac resynchronization in the management of adriamycin-induced cardiomyopathy. Am J Cardiol 2008; 101:1371-2.
• Haddad G, Saunders L, Crosby S, Carles M, del Monte F, Bristow M, Spinale F, Macgillivray T, Semigran M, Dec, G, Hajjar R, Gwathmey J. Fingerprint profile of alcohol-associated heart failure in human hearts. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research 2008;32:814-21.
• Cooper LT, Hare JM, Tazelaar HD, Edwards WD, Starling RC, Deng MD, Menon S, Mullen GM, Jaski B, Baily KR, Cunningham MW, Dec GW. Usefulness of immunosuppression in giant cell myocarditis. Am J Cardiol 2008;102:1535-9.
• Haddad GE, Saunder LJ, Crosby SD, Carles SD, delMonte F, King K, Bristow MR, Spinale FG, Macgillivray TE, Semigran MJ, Dec GW, Williams SA, Hajjar RJ, Gwathmey JK. Human cardiac-specific cDNA array for idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy: sex-related differences. Physiol Genomics 2008;33:267-77.
• Haider N, Arbustini E, Gupta S, Liu H, Narula N, Hajjar R, Semigran MJ, Dec GW, Chandrashekhar Y, Narual J. Concurrent upregulation of endogenous pro- and anti-apoptotic factors in the failing human heart. Nature Cardiovascular Medicine 2009;6:250-61.