As a youngster growing up in Stamford and Norwalk, Conn., John M. Lasala ’83 MD would sit on the front porch of his home and offer to treat passersby for their cuts and scrapes. It was an early sign of what was to come for the boy who grew up to become one of the nation’s leading cardiologists.
Today, Lasala is a full professor of medicine at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, and is listed yearly among the Best Doctors in America rankings, including the 2010 group published by Doctors Inc. He was recently awarded the American Heart Association’s Hugh McCulloch Award as the Outstanding Cardiologist in the Midwest. He serves as director of interventional cardiology and medical director of the university’s Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory.
“It’s a challenge for sure, but extremely gratifying to be recognized by your peers,” he says. “But it comes down to taking care of your patients.”
A specialist in structural heart disease, Lasala is helping to break new ground in less invasive procedures to repair heart damage, including congenital holes in the heart and replacing abnormal heart valves. Most recently, he was part of a 2010 landmark study focused on the Edwards SAPIEN transcatheter heart valve, which has shown a dramatic reduction in mortality.
Lasala’s interest in science became focused during his undergraduate days at Drew University in New Jersey, where he studied organic chemistry and found himself interested in research. He pursued a doctoral degree in biochemistry at Saint Louis University. However, he was drawn to medical research. He spoke with Paul Evans III ’79 MD, a close friend from Drew who was completing his medical degree at UConn.
“He really sold me on the idea that it was going to be a great place to get a very good medical education. It was the launching pad for what came to follow,” Lasala says.
Over the next few years what followed included an internship and residency in internal medicine at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, appointments as a Fellow in Cardiology and Interventional Cardiology at Yale School of Medicine, and a year of private practice in St. Louis. He received his first appointment to the Cardiovascular Division at Washington University School of Medicine in 1992.
“Every three or four years there is a breakthrough in interventional cardiology, such as replacing heart valves without doing any surgery. It is an extremely exciting field,” Lasala says. “This satisfies my interest in research, taking care of critically ill patients, and to also work with a very bright energetic group of fellows in cardiology. I couldn’t have asked for much more.”
Lasala says the lines between surgery and interventional cardiology have become blurred.
“We’re now more alike than different. There’s a lot of project work in conjunction with surgeons,” he notes. “I see more hybrids, a combination of small surgical incisions with a more noninvasive way to take care of problems.”
In addition to his medical degree, Lasala has other UConn connections. His sister, Michele Lasala Walsh ’77 (SFS), is part of a special education team in suburban Atlanta, and Lasala continues to follow the Huskies.
“I’ve been to the Women’s Final Four in St. Louis to watch UConn,” he says. “My youngest daughter’s thrill was when [the Husky mascot] Jonathan gave her a high five.”
This article was published in the Spring 2011 edition of UCONN Magazine.
