As the newest addition to the renowned academic health system, the location will significantly expand Keck Medicine clinical care for residents of Pasadena and neighboring communities in the San Gabriel Valley.  

What sets the new Pasadena location apart  

“This new location — our largest and most advanced outpatient setting — will bring even more of our research-based clinical care to the Pasadena area, where many of our patients live and work,” said Rod Hanners, CEO of Keck Medicine. “The new location offers state-of-the-art technology and access to acclaimed specialists who translate medical discoveries into groundbreaking treatments and cures.” 

Patients will have access to the same expert physicians who treat patients at Keck Medical Center of USC, including researchers and doctors from USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, one of the nation’s top comprehensive cancer centers designated by the National Cancer Institute; the esteemed USC Cardiac and Vascular Institute; and the nationally recognized USC Orthopaedic Surgery team, the official orthopedic medical services providers for USC Athletics and the LA Kings. 

The building will provide an airy, nature-filled environment designed to promote well-being. Each of the location’s four floors will be suffused with light from floor-to-ceiling windows, showcasing views of the San Gabriel Mountains. 

Convenient access to comprehensive services  

The location will feature a wide range of services including: 

• Autoimmune diseases care, such as rheumatology (rheumatoid arthritis and lupus), allergy/immunology, and autoimmune skin conditions (psoriasis and scleroderma)
• Cardiovascular care  
• Comprehensive oncology care  
• Infusion therapy 
• Orthopedics and spine care 
• Outpatient imaging  
• Outpatient surgery  
• Pain management 

“The new Pasadena medical office building doubles down on our commitment to the health of our community, allowing patients to visit one location for a variety of health care needs while providing access to the high-quality care only an academic health system can offer,” said Smitha Ravipudi, MPH, CEO of USC Care Medical Group and CEO of Keck Medicine ambulatory care services.  

Location complements existing Pasadena office 

In addition to the new location, Keck Medicine will continue to treat patients at the existing Keck Medicine of USC - Pasadena building located at 625 S. Fair Oaks Ave., Suite 400 with an expanded range of primary care services, including an emphasis on digestive and metabolic health; brain health and aging; and advanced ear, nose and throat and ophthalmology services.  

Keck Medicine is one of only two university-based health systems in the Los Angeles area. Keck Medical Center of USC, which includes Keck Hospital of USC and USC Norris Cancer Hospital, is among the top 50 hospitals in the country in eight specialties, as well as the top three hospitals in metro Los Angeles and top 10 hospitals in California, according to U.S. News & World Report’s 2024-25 Best Hospitals rankings.  

PAD, which affects approximately eight to 12 million Americans and is associated with nearly half of the 150,000 yearly amputations in the U.S., is a potentially life-threatening condition in which the arteries that carry blood from the heart to the legs narrow or become blocked by the buildup of fatty plaque. This can lead to a heart attack, stroke or amputation of the affected limb.

“We discovered that Black patients are nearly 50% less likely to receive vascular interventions to potentially restore the blood flow than white patients, and consequently are at a disproportionately higher risk of a stroke, heart attack or amputation,” said David Armstrong, DPM, PhD, a podiatric surgeon specializing in limb preservation with Keck Medicine and an author of the study. “Additionally, Black patients tend to have more advanced PAD and are sicker at the time of diagnosis, indicating they may not be getting as timely medical attention as their white counterparts.”

PAD often starts out with no or mild symptoms, such as a leg cramp or muscle pain, and therefore often goes underdiagnosed. 

Once detected, generally through a blood test, PAD is typically treated with medication to reduce the plaque in the arteries and through suggested lifestyle changes, such as increased exercise and a healthy diet. If these measures don’t work, physicians usually recommend a procedure known as revascularization. Revascularization either improves the blood flow to the arteries by using a balloon or stent to open them or reroutes the blood to another, healthier artery, which can reduce the risk of a cardiac incident or amputation.

The study discovered that Black patients are more likely to only receive medication and lifestyle change recommendations, while white patients also receive revascularization. “Our findings suggest Black patients are missing out on potentially limb- and life-saving treatments,” said Armstrong. “And because Black patients tend to be sicker at the time of diagnosis than white patients, they may actually be in more need of a revascularization than other patients.”

Armstrong and his colleagues used a large national database to compare rates of diagnostic testing, treatment patterns and outcomes after diagnosis of PAD among commercially insured patients in the United States from the years 2016 to 2021. They identified some 455,000 white patients and 96,000 Black patients. They then compared demographics, markers of disease severity and health care costs as well as patterns of medical management and rates of amputation and cardiovascular events among the two patient groups to reach their conclusions.

While the study did not analyze why disparities in the detection, treatment and outcomes of PAD between Black and white patients exist, one factor may be that Black patients are already at a higher risk of developing PAD, said Armstrong. He also hypothesizes that the inequalities may be due to broader systematic issues in health care such as unconscious bias or barriers to health care access for certain populations.

“We hope this study will encourage physicians to take these differences into account when diagnosing and treating PAD to ensure that vascular interventions are being equally provided to all patients,” he said. “We also urge health professionals to offer more routine screenings for PAD in Black patients.”

Additionally, Armstrong advises patients to proactively seek medical advice and testing if they have any symptoms related to PAD — leg cramping, pain, numbness, weakness or discoloration — and advocate to be considered for all treatment options after diagnosis.

“The development of the USC Cardiac and Vascular Institute elevates our commitment to patient-focused care and the highest quality outcomes,” said Starnes, who also serves as Distinguished Professor and chair of the USC Department of Surgery and H. Russell Smith Foundation Chair for Stem Cell and Cardiovascular Thoracic Research at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. “The launch of the institute will drive clinical growth and enhance the strong, integrated working relationship between the cardiology, cardiac and vascular surgery teams.”

The USC CVI offers comprehensive, coordinated sub-specialized care across the continuum of cardiovascular services. Services offered include world-class cardiac and vascular surgery, advanced heart failure and transplant, leading-edge valve repair and replacement techniques, comprehensive treatment for atrial fibrillation, an on-call team for aortic emergencies and a rapid transport system for accepting patients across the region who need a high level of specialty care as well as non-invasive cardiology, cardiac imaging, electrophysiology procedures and interventional cardiology.

The institute also provides clinical excellence through its collaboration with cardiac care-aligned departments, such as the Department of Medicine and the Department of Anesthesiology. In addition, institute leaders work with the Keck School to expand cardiovascular medicine research and education.

Looking forward, the USC CVI is committed to supporting clinical program development and growth and creating new facilities to address existing patient needs.

Under the leadership of Ray Matthews, MD, director of outreach and network development, the institute will also create an aligned network of providers to maintain and enhance relationships with independent physician groups and community and affiliate hospitals.

The need for advanced heart care is critical. According to the American Heart Association, one in three American adults has some form of cardiovascular disease. Heart disease also is the leading cause of death in the United States for both men and women and for all racial and ethnic groups. 

“We look forward to continuing to connect patients with a network of world-class providers, services and facilities to treat cardiovascular disease, while serving as a hub of innovation and a model for other cardiology and heart surgery programs,” said Starnes.

Clinical trials provide researchers with insight into how people are likely to respond to medical interventions, including surgery. Factors such as age, weight, genetics, ethnic origin and geographic location all play a role in how a person may react to different treatments. For that reason, representation of diverse patient populations in clinical trials enables researchers to better address public health concerns.

“Nearly half of Los Angeles residents are Hispanic, making the Keck School uniquely positioned to recruit a large, underrepresented population in cardiac surgery trials,” said principal investigator Michael Bowdish, MD, MS, associate professor of surgery and preventive medicine at the Keck School. “By increasing patient diversity in cardiac surgery clinical trials, we are better suited to address cardiovascular disease, the No. 1 cause of mortality in the United States.”

The Keck School, through relationships with the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services, will recruit potential patients from areas with a large Hispanic presence, according to Bowdish. Potential patients also will be identified through the Southern California Clinical and Translational Science Institute (SC CTSI), which provides outreach and education to more than 30 predominantly Hispanic community health organizations in Los Angeles.

“Addressing the cardiovascular needs of our community is top priority,” said Vaughn A. Starnes, MD, chair and Distinguished Professor of Surgery and H. Russell Smith Foundation Chair for Stem Cell and Cardiovascular Thoracic Research at the Keck School. “This prestigious award provides us with valuable resources to discover novel and innovative therapies to improve the health of our Los Angeles community and beyond.”
The Keck School will collaborate with Saint Luke's Mid America Heart Institute in Kansas City, Missouri, as Linked Clinical Research Centers. This expands the patient pool for gathering and assessing data, enabling researchers to achieve stronger and more definitive research results, according to Bowdish.

In addition, the implementation science training program, under the leadership of Cecilia Patino-Sutton, MD, PhD, MEd, associate professor of preventive medicine at the Keck School, will explore novel ways to translate findings from clinical research in cardiac surgery into clinical practice. The program also will leverage collaborative relationships between the Keck School, SC CTSI, the USC Gehr Family Center for Health Systems Science, and the USC Leonard D. Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics, as well as the Mid America Heart Institute Cardiovascular Research Fellowship.

Keck Medicine of USC has been an active member of the CTSN since 2010. The CTSN includes more than 40 major academic medical centers across the United States and Canada, and more than 20 hospitals in Europe.

As president, Starnes will lead the AATS as it continues in its commitment to science, education and research, and furthers its mission to promote scholarship, innovation and leadership in thoracic and cardiovascular surgery.

“I’m honored to lead AATS, one of the oldest and most prestigious organizations dedicated to cardiothoracic surgery,” Starnes said. “As we look to the year ahead, AATS will continue in its commitment to encourage, promote and advance the field of cardiothoracic surgery, and further its significant contributions to the care and treatment of cardiothoracic disease.”

In addition to serving as chair of the Department of Surgery, Starnes is a Distinguished Professor of Surgery, executive director of the USC CardioVascular Thoracic Institute and the H. Russell Smith Foundation Chair for Stem Cell and Cardiovascular Thoracic Research at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. Starnes also is president of the USC Care Medical Group. He joined USC in July 1992.

As executive director of the USC CardioVascular Thoracic Institute at Keck Medicine, Starnes has built an interdisciplinary powerhouse composed of clinicians and scientists who are exploring innovative ways to treat heart disease. Under his leadership, USC surgeons have conducted more than 50,000 adult and pediatric open heart surgeries to repair and replace valves, create coronary artery bypasses and repair complex adult and congenital heart defects.

Starnes founded the Heart Institute after joining CHLA in 1992, and launched CHLA’s pediatric heart transplant program a year later. Today, he specializes in treating damaged heart valves with minimally invasive repairs and valve replacements in children.

In 1990, Starnes performed the world’s first lobar transplant, using a lung segment from a living donor. The following year, he performed a heart and lung transplant on a one-month-old infant — the youngest heart-lung transplant patient ever at the time.  Starnes also performed the first living-donor, double-lobar lung transplant on a patient with cystic fibrosis. The operation involved taking lung tissue from each of the child’s parents and transplanting it into the patient.

In addition to his clinical work, Starnes is also a respected researcher. He has an ongoing interest in congenital heart disease, cadaveric and living-donor organ transplantation, repair and replacement of heart valves, coronary bypass grafting and gene therapy techniques to address problems following heart surgery. He also is investigating the use of stem cells to treat rare pediatric cardiac defects.

Starnes earned his medical degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and conducted his general surgery training at Vanderbilt University, where he also completed two years of research in cardiothoracic physiology and pharmacology. He went on to complete two years at Stanford University as a resident in cardiovascular surgery and one year as chief resident in cardiac transplantation. He then accepted a prestigious fellowship in pediatric cardiovascular surgery at the Hospital for Sick Children in London. When he returned to Stanford, he was appointed director of its heart-lung transplantation program.

The AATS is an international organization of more than 1,500 of the world's foremost cardiothoracic surgeons, representing 42 countries. Founded in 1917, its members have a proven record of distinction within the specialty and have made significant contributions to the care and treatment of cardiothoracic disease throughout the world.

With Keck Medicine since 2007, Mo has a clinical practice in cardiology and includes a specialty in echocardiography. Pursuing her interest in health care redesign and process improvement, she obtained a master’s degree in health administration at USC in 2017. As an active physician leader in the Keck Medicine community, she most recently championed the care delivery redesign effort for heart failure and cardiology services and the optimization of the ambulatory electronic medical record system.

“With the medical center’s high volume of referred and transferred patients, we are always looking for ways to efficiently deliver quality care in the clinics and in our hospital, and ensure that patients are appropriately and safely discharged while bridging the gap from patient discharge to patient follow-up” says Mo, who succeeds Kiran Dhanireddy, MD.

Prior to joining USC, Mo completed internal medicine and cardiology training at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas and earned a medical degree at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.

Mo’s interest in taking on her new role grew from her own experience as a clinician.

“As a physician, I feel very rewarded working face-to-face with patients but understand that making that interaction happen requires effective and efficient workflow processes,” Mo says. “One of my goals as CMO is to improve that workflow so my colleagues are able to focus on providing exceptional patient care.”