Kaweah Health welcomes vascular surgeon to cardiology center in Visalia

VISALIA – To better serve patients in Tulare County, where the incidence of diabetes is among the highest in the state and heart disease is prevalent, Kaweah Health has added a vascular surgeon to its Kaweah Health Cardiology Center.

Kaweah Health welcomes LaMar Mack, M.D., who is Board Certified in Vascular Surgery, to the Kaweah Health Cardiology Center in Visalia. The center brings a vascular surgeon and five cardiologists together in one place to care for patients.

“We have relatively underserved patients here in our community. We want to make sure that they get the same treatment that others would in any other city,” said Dr. Mack, noting that patients with diabetes and heart disease are also often at risk of vascular disease. Vascular disease involves the arteries and veins of a person’s circulatory system and can cause a range of health problems ranging from severe to fatal. “These are pretty debilitating issues. If folks have to travel in order to get them taken care of, it’s not always a good thing. To have care here, centralized and local is what’s really important.”

Dr. Mack comes to Kaweah Health Cardiology Center after nine years of service to the community at South Valley Vascular, which Kaweah Health also partners with to provide vascular services to patients. Prior to arriving in Visalia, Dr. Mack received his medical degree from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill and completed his residency and fellowship at the University of Tennessee Medical Center.

Dr. Mack will see patients at the Kaweah Health Cardiology Center and will perform all vascular surgeries at Kaweah Health Medical Center. “Part of the vision is to expand the vascular program so that we can treat those more challenging cases here,” Dr. Mack said.

Dr. Mack will work beside the other vascular surgeons that Kaweah Health partners with - Omar Araim, M.D., Abdulrahman Hamdi, M.D., Alexander Nguyen, M.D., Matthew Campbell, M.D., Joyce Lu, M.D., LaMar Mack, M.D. – to expand thoracic aneurysm care and the use of TransCarotid Artery Revascularization (TCAR) and more. TCAR is the new surgical approach for carotid artery disease that reduces patients’ risk for stroke.

The Kaweah Health Cardiology Center opened in 2018 to improve the community’s access to cardiology services. Along with Dr. Mack, physicians practicing at the center include:

• David Cislowski, M.D.
• Ankur Gupta, M.D.
• Dennis Johnson, M.D.
• Harry Lively, M.D.
• Atul Singla, M.D.

This 13,425-square-foot center in Visalia promotes heart and vascular health and provides ongoing evaluation and management of heart and vascular problems. These five cardiologists provide general cardiology and interventional cardiology care. The center also houses Kaweah Health’s Diagnostic Center which provides state-of-the-art cardiac imaging including echocardiogram, stress testing, cardiac PET and nuclear imaging tests that determine blood flow and heart function. Patients can also have the following evaluated and managed at the center:

• Congestive heart failure
• Coronary artery disease
• Valve disease
• High blood pressure
• High cholesterol
• Peripheral arterial disease
• Carotid artery disease
• Aortic aneurysms
• Leg wounds/pain
• Dialysis access

Kaweah Health Cardiology Center and Diagnostic Center is located at 820 S. Akers St. Suite 130 in Visalia, CA. For information, call 559-624-6520.

Kaweah Health is a publicly-owned community healthcare organization that provides comprehensive health services to the greater Visalia region and Tulare County. Visit www.kaweahhealth.org.