James de Lemos, M.D., is a Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at UT Southwestern Medical Center, and a member of the Division of Cardiology. He is also Associate Director of UT Southwestern’s Cardiovascular Fellowship Program.
Dr. de Lemos graduated from Harvard Medical School and completed an internal medicine residency at UT Southwestern, where he also served as Chief Resident. He completed a fellowship in cardiovascular medicine and served on the faculty at Harvard’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston before returning to UT Southwestern to join the faculty in 2000.
He has served on multiple committees of the American Heart Association and American College of Cardiology and most recently served as Principal Investigator for the AHA’s COVID-19 Cardiovascular Disease Registry. He has also been a standing member of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) Cardiorenal Advisory Panel and is currently serving on the FDA’s Endocrine and Metabolic Panel.
Additionally, Dr. de Lemos is the Executive Editor of Circulation, and has previously served on the editorial boards of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, the American Journal of Cardiology, and the American Heart Journal. He has mentored more than 30 post-doctoral research trainees and has authored or coauthored more than 400 original research articles.
He has won several teaching awards and consistently appears on the D Magazine “Best Doctors” and Texas Monthly “Super Doctors” lists.
Dr. de Lemos is active in clinical research, focusing on early detection, risk assessment, and management of cardiovascular disease, with a particular interest in the role of cardiovascular biomarkers. He currently serves as Principal Investigator for the Dallas Heart Study, a multiethnic population-based study of more than 6,000 adults, and has played a major leadership role in this study for more than 20 years.
Dr. de Lemos is married with three children and is an avid sports fan.
As Associate Director of the Cardiovascular Fellowship Program at UT Southwestern Medical Center, cardiologist James de Lemos, M.D., stays at the forefront of prevention and treatment of heart disease.
It’s the impact that he can make on patients’ lives, however, that he finds most rewarding. “Heart care is one area of medicine that we can offer patients a lot in terms of therapies that improve and lengthen their lives,” he says.
Dr. de Lemos treats the spectrum of cardiac disease, including coronary artery disease, atrial fibrillation and other arrhythmias, heart failure, and valve disease. He also sees patients hospitalized with advanced heart disease.
Additionally, he is active in several clinical research projects. Most notably, he’s the Medical Director for the Dallas Heart Study, a one-of-a-kind population-based study aiming, among other goals, to identify new genetic, protein, and imaging biomarkers that can detect cardiovascular disease at its earliest stages, when prevention is most effective.
“My research directly relates to my clinical practice, so I’m up-to-date on the latest advances in general cardiology care and prevention. I discuss my findings with my patients so they’re aware of what’s available and what’s coming,” he says.
When with patients, Dr. de Lemos takes time to understand their issues and provide an individualized approach to care – something all cardiologists at UT Southwestern aim to offer.
“We get to know our patients, their needs and specific goals with regard to their heart care, so we can make decisions based on their needs,” he says.
Dr. de Lemos looks forward to the next phase in care – gaining more insight into a patient’s risk for heart disease – to prevent it or keep it from getting worse. UT Southwestern researchers have helped develop some low-cost tests that are taking heart care in that direction.
“It’s an exciting time to be in heart care,” Dr. de Lemos says.
