Tony DeFrance, MD
National Director of SCCT Workgroups

Dr. Tony DeFrance is a board certified interventional cardiologist and has earned Level 3 competency in Cardiac CT Angiography. He became involved in Cardiac CT Angiography in 2002 and since then has performed and interpreted several thousands of studies. He has taught several hundred cardiologists and radiologists how to perform and interpret CTA studies. Dr. DeFrance is currently the medical director of the CVCTA Education Center in San Francisco. In addition, he is the director of CVCTA for four imaging centers in California.

Dr. DeFrance was one of the founding members of the Society of Cardiovascular CT and is currently the national director of CT workgroups for the SCCT. He is very active in the California ACC reimbursement subcommittee for CTA and is increasingly involved in credentialing and verification of CTA competency guidelines. He is also the author of several articles on Cardiac CTA training, and cardiology - radiology partnerships.

Dr. DeFrance is on the Educational Advisory Board for Toshiba Medical Systems and is on the Advisory Board for Scienta. In addition he heads the Cardiac CT Imaging Training for Cardiology Fellows at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco.


John R. Lesser, MD
SCCT Board of Directors

Dr. Lesser is an interventional cardiologist and director of cardiovascular MRI and CT at the Minneapolis Heart Institute. He is also an Adjunct Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Minnesota. Dr. Lesser is on the Society of Cardiovascular CT’s (SCCT) Board of Directors where he serves as Chairman of the Accreditation, Certification, and Guidelines Committee. He holds professional memberships as a fellow with the American College of Cardiology (ACC) and as a member of the American Heart Association (AHA), The Society for Cardiac Angiography and Intervention (SCAI), and the Society of Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance (SCMR). He has previously served on the Board of Directors with the Intersocietal Commission for CT Accreditation of Laboratories as well as the Credentialing and Certification Board for Cardiovascular CT.

Dr. Lesser has experience interpreting more than 4,500 MRI cardiovascular studies and more than 3,000 coronary and peripheral CT angiogram cases. He has reached Level III competency in Cardiac MRI. Dr. Lesser received his M.D. from University of Florida and his B.A. from University of Pennsylvania.


Robert S. Schwartz, MD, FACC
Dr. Robert Schwartz is a Professor of Medicine at University of Minnesota Medical School, Medical Director at the Minnesota Cardiovascular Research Institute, and Cardiologist at the Minneapolis Heart Institute. His clinical and research interests include interventional cardiology, imaging, clinical information processing and clinical medical care. 

He was previously Director at the Center for Applied Vascular Biology and Interventions, Mayo Foundation. Dr. Schwartz has also served as Professor and Associate Professor at the Mayo Medical School. He holds Board Certifications on: the National Board of Medical Examiners; American Board of Internal Medicine; and the American Board of Internal Medicine, Cardiovascular Diseases. He has published numerous articles in peer review journals, dealing with interventional cardiology.

Dr. Schwartz is the recipient of various awards, including the Andreas Gruentzig Award for Basic Research in Coronary Restenosis from the Thoraxcenter/European Society of Cardiology. He holds professional memberships as Fellow of American College of Cardiology, American Heart Association, and Society for Cardiac Angiography and Interventions. Dr. Schwartz is also a founding member of the Society for Cardiovascular Computed Tomography. Dr. Schwartz received a master’s degree in Electrical Engineering and an M.D. from the University of Colorado-Denver.


Ross G. Hoffman, M.D.
Dr. Hoffman is Director of Cardiac Imaging and Preventive Cardiology at Cardiology Partners, PC, Grand Junction, Colorado. His clinical and research interests include advanced cardiac imaging and investigating its correlation with novel serologic and molecular biomarkers of cardiovascular disease. He is founder and owner of Peak Performance Imaging, promoting research and prevention of sudden cardiac death in youth and athletes.

Dr. Hoffman received his invasive cardiology training at Brown University, with Adult Congenital Heart training at Boston Children’s Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1984 and received his medical degree from the University of Florida in Gainesville in 1988.

Peter S. Fail, MD
Dr. Peter Fail received his undergraduate degree at the University of South Florida in Tampa and his medical degree from American University of the Caribbean in Montserrat, British Indies.

In addition to an internship and residency in internal medicine, Dr. Fail also served as chief fellow in interventional cardiology at the Episcopal Heart Institute in Philadelphia. He later became director of the institute's cardiac catheterization laboratory. Dr. Fail was a clinical assistant professor of medicine at both Thomas Jefferson School of Medicine and the Allegheny Health Science School of Medicine in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

He is board certified in internal medicine, cardiovascular disease and interventional cardiology. He is a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology, the American College of Chest Physicians, the American College of Physicians and a member of the American Medical Association.  He has written or co-authored numerous research papers, abstracts, book chapters and medical presentations in his specialty.

Dr. Fail is the director of cardiac catheterization laboratories, interventional research and CT imaging for Cardiovascular Institute of the South (CIS) and medical director of interventional trials for the CIS Clinical Research Corporation in Houma, Louisiana.


Brendan Cavanaugh, MD
Dr. Brendan Cavanaugh is the director of Cardiovascular CT at the New Mexico Heart Institute in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He completed his cardiology fellowship at Northwestern Medical Center in Chicago, where he received Level III certification in Cardiovascular CT and was formally trained by both the departments of Radiology and Cardiology.

Dr. Cavanaugh is also Board Certified in Internal Medicine and Cardiovascular Disease. His additional professional interests include the cardiovascular care of athletes, lipid management, and preventive cardiology. He attended Medical school at Rush University and completed his residency at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center.