John Carroll

The first eighteen years of John’s life were in a rural Illinois. He then followed Wanderlust to Europe, bought a used Norton motorcycle, and toured. Returning he entered Princeton University where he discovered his love for science and desire to help people. He tentered medical school at the University of Chicago, spent a junior rotation in London and learned that English hospitals stopped functioning for tea time. Then he spent four years in the Boston training trenches at Tufts New England Medical Center. To pursue advanced cardiology training he went to Zurich under Professors Hans Peter Krayenbuehl and Otto Hess at the Universitattspital Zuerich. Finally, at the age of 32, he became faculty at the University of Chicago. During the Chicago years he became an experienced interventional cardiologist, cared for many patients, established an independent research career, and fell in love with a brilliant cardiologist. They married, had four children, she became a faculty member at Northwestern, and in 1996 they decided it was time to rearrange life and opportunity called from Colorado. The Colorado years have been wonderful for John and his family, which includes three sons and a daughter now ranging in age from late teens to early twenties. He became active in leadership at the University of Colorado. He saw the need to develop new non-surgical treatments for people with structural heart abnormalities. He built an innovative program in advanced image guidance of procedures with patents in 3-D visualization, simulation based training, and the development of PFO and other specialized programs of patient care. He has consulted for over 1000 patients with a problem related to having a PFO. He is active in clinical research trials both locally and nationally. He sees the central issue in the PFO field being patient-centric, not about a procedure. He joined the PRF medical advisory board because he supports the mission of PRF and believes patients can help improve the medical system. Organizing the first PFO Summit has been a major focus and passion for him to help improve patient care. He runs every day he can and continues to travel via lecturing throughout the world often accompanied by a family member.