Dr. Leon Ptaszek is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Ptaszek received his undergraduate degree with high honors from Wesleyan University in 1994 and his MD and PhD degrees from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine (New York University) in 2003. He completed a residency program in Internal Medicine at the Stanford University School of Medicine in 2005 and then completed clinical and research fellowships in Cardiovascular Diseases and Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiology at the Massachusetts General Hospital in 2011.
Dr. Ptaszek’s research interests include the molecular mechanisms of scar formation after myocardial infarction and interventions that reduce post-infarct scar burden. He holds two patents and is the author of over 50 original scientific publications, book chapters and reviews. He is regularly invited to deliver lectures related to his areas of clinical and research expertise on national and international levels. Dr. Ptaszek also maintains an active referral practice that includes local, regional, national, and international referrals. In addition, Dr. Ptaszek is involved in international health outreach efforts and has performed pacemaker and defibrillator implant procedures in Ethiopia and India.
Dr. Ptaszek received the Franklin G. Ebaugh, Jr. Award for research and the Award for Professionalism from the Stanford University School of Medicine in 2005. He received the Clinician-Scientist Award from the Harvard Stem Cell Institute and was named the de Gunzburg Scholar at MGH in 2011. Dr. Ptaszek became a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology in 2013 and became a Fellow of the Heart Rhythm Society in 2018.
