Morton J. Kern
Biography
Morton J. Kern, MD, MSCAI, FACC, FAHA, is a Staff Interventional Cardiologist in the Division of Cardiology at the Veterans Administration Long Beach Health Care System and HS Clinical Professor Without Salary in the Department of Medicine at the University of California, Irvine. He previously served as Chief of the Division of Cardiology at the VA Long Beach Health Care System from 2009 to 2023 and as Chief of the Medicine Health Care Group at the Tibor Rubin Veterans Administration Hospital from 2014 to 2020. Dr. Kern received his MD from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in 1976 and completed his cardiovascular fellowship at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School. His career has spanned over four decades, including 13 years as Professor of Medicine and Director of the J.G. Mudd Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory at St. Louis University School of Medicine from 1991 to 2004.
Dr. Kern is an internationally recognized authority in interventional coronary physiology, particularly in the clinical application of coronary pressure and flow measurements. He has authored over 320 peer-reviewed publications and has been a prolific contributor to the field through more than 250 invited articles, editorials, and book chapters. His work has focused on the use of fractional flow reserve (FFR), coronary Doppler flow velocity, and intravascular imaging to guide percutaneous coronary interventions. Dr. Kern has served as editor or co-editor of multiple editions of The Cardiac Catheterization Handbook and The Interventional Cardiac Catheterization Handbook, which have become standard references in the field. He has also edited several editions of Hemodynamic Rounds: Interpretation of Cardiac Pathophysiology from Pressure Waveform Analysis and The SCAI Interventional Cardiology Board Review.
Dr. Kern has held numerous leadership positions in professional organizations, including serving as President of the Society for Cardiac Angiography and Interventions (SCAI) in 1998-1999 and as a member of multiple American Heart Association and American College of Cardiology guideline writing committees. He was named Master of SCAI in 2014 and has received the American College of Cardiology Educator of the Year Award (2022), Distinguished Mentor Award (2019), and the Simon Dack Award for Outstanding Scholarship (2009, 2018). He has served on the editorial boards of numerous journals including Circulation, Journal of the American College of Cardiology, Catheterization and Cardiovascular Interventions, and JACC: Cardiovascular Interventions. Dr. Kern has been recognized as an Elite Reviewer by multiple journals and received the EuroIntervention Elite Reviewer Gold Award in 2024.
Return to topEducation
- B.A., University of California, Los Angeles, 1971
- M.D., Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, New York, 1976
Distinctions
- Simon Dack Award, Outstanding Scholarship from the J Am College of Cardiology, 2009, 2018
- Master, Society of Cardiac Angiography and Intervention, 2014
- EuroIntervention Elite Reviewer Gold award, Top 10, 2024
- Circulation Cardiovascular Interventions, Top 10 reviewers, 2024
- JACC Elite Reviewer award, 2019, 2023
- American College of Cardiology Educator of the Year Award, 2022
- JACC: Cardiovascular Interventions Top Reviewers, 2021
- Circulation Cardiovascular Intervention - #1 Reviewer, 2019
- American College of Cardiology Distinguished Mentor Award, 2019
- British Medical Book Awards, First Prize, The Interventional Cardiac Catheterization Handbook, 2018
Areas of Expertise
- Interventional Cardiology
- Coronary Hemodynamics Assessment
- Fractional Flow Reserve Measurement
- Intravascular Ultrasound Imaging
- Cardiac Catheterization Techniques
- Intracoronary Doppler Velocity
- Structural Heart Disease Intervention
Recent Publications
- Bharani V., Patel V.I., Kern M.J., Patel P.M., “A Road Less Traveled: Successful Alcohol Septal Ablation via an Aberrant Septal Coronary Artery in Hypertrophic Obstructive Cardiomyopathy” (opens in new tab), Catheterization and Cardiovascular Interventions, vol. 106, pp. 1273-1279, 2025.
- Bangalore S., Fearon W.F., Fugar S., Dangas G.D., Iqbal S., Johnson N.P., Power D., Tamis-Holland J., Kern M.J., “Evidence-Based Practices in the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory: Invasive Epicardial Coronary Physiologic Assessment: A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association” (opens in new tab), Circulation, vol. Publish Ahead of Print, 2025.
- Wu P, Konugres G, Kern MJ, “A 'Groot'* in the heart: Rare intravascular leiomyomatosis mimicking central pulmonary embolism” (opens in new tab), Journal of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography, vol. 18, pp. e5-e7, 2024.
- Kern MJ, Seto AH, “Does PPG, the other dimension to FFR, better predict post-PCI results?” (opens in new tab), Circulation, vol. 150, pp. 598-599, 2024.
- Patel A, Patel V, Tang Y, Shah S, Tang G, Kern MJ, “Implementing a 'Lead [apron]-free' cardiac catheterization: Current Status” (opens in new tab), Current Cardiology Reports, vol. 26, pp. 1021-1029, 2024.
- Kern MJ, Seto AH, “Virtual FFR from Optical Coherence Tomography: A one-stop-shop for PCI guidance?” (opens in new tab), Circulation: Cardiovascular Interventions, vol. 17, pp. E014077, 2024.
- Kern MJ, Seto AH, “Microvascular Resistance Reserve and the STEMI Patient – Putting a finer point on the CFR pencil?” (opens in new tab), Jacc Cardiovascular Interventions, vol. 17, no. 10, pp. 1228-1230, 2024.
- Kern MJ, Seto AH, “Does Revascularization in TAVR patients make a difference?” (opens in new tab), Cardiovascular Revascularization Medicine, vol. 68, pp. 15-16, 2024.
- Gasparini GL, Kern MJ, “The Cuttering (Cutting-Dottering Balloon) Technique for Treatment of Flow-Limiting Coronary Intramural Hematoma”, Catheterization and Cardiovascular Interventions, 2024.
- Kern MJ, Seto AH, “The SCAI Interventional Cardiology Board Review, 4th edition”, Wolters Kluwer/Lippincott Williams and Wilkens, 2024.
- Ma H, Wang S, O'Brien S, Kern M, Gupta P, “How we approach the perioperative management of patients with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia receiving continuous cancer-directed therapies” (opens in new tab), British Journal of Haematology, vol. 201, pp. 215-221, 2023.
- Kern MJ, Seto AH, “Understanding the mechanism of improved CFR after TAVR/SAVR – the importance of basal flow” (opens in new tab), EuroIntervention, vol. 18, pp. 1129-1130, 2023.
- Seto AH, Kern MJ, “Thrombocytopenia with Impella: Not a HIT” (opens in new tab), Catheterization and Cardiovascular Interventions, vol. 101, pp. 324-325, 2023.
- Kern MJ, Seto AH, “Validating Angiographically-derived FFR in the NSTEMI patient: An important step forward” (opens in new tab), Catheterization and Cardiovascular Interventions, vol. 101, pp. 316-317, 2023.
- Dean L, Kern MJ, “Pearls in Hemodynanics: Differentiating pericardial constriction from restrictive cardiomyopathy”, JSCAI, 2023.
- Roguin A, Wu P, Cohoon T, Fahad Gul F, Nasr G, Premyodhin N, Kern MJ, “Update on Radiation Safety in the Cath Lab – Moving Toward a "Lead Free" Environment” (opens in new tab), Journal of the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions, vol. 2, 2023.
- Kern MJ, Cohen DJ, “Does Coronary Artery Reactivity testing (CRT) reduce health care related costs in patients with angina and non-obstructive coronary arteries (ANOCA)?”, Circulation: Cardiovascular Interventions, vol. 16, 2023.
- Kern MJ, “Quantitative flow ratio and cardiovascular risk: paralleling the FFR ischaemic continuum” (opens in new tab), EuroIntervention, vol. 19, pp. 1-3, 2023.
- Kern MJ, “Is a 5F guide as good as a 6F guide catheter for invasive physiology measurements?” (opens in new tab), Cardiovascular Revascularization Medicine, vol. 60, pp. 64-65, 2023.
- Lim MJ, Sorajja P, Kern MJ, “The Interventional Cardiac Catheterization Handbook, 5th Edition”, Elsevier, 2023.
Most Cited Publications
- Kern MJ, Lerman A, Bech JW, De Bruyne B, Eeckhout E, Fearon WF, Higano ST, Lim MJ, Meuwissen M, Piek JJ, Pijls NHJ, Siebes M, Spaan LAE, “Physiological assessment of coronary artery disease in the cardiac catheterization laboratory: a scientific statement from the American Heart Association Committee on Diagnostic and Interventional Cardiac Catheterization, Council on Clinical Cardiology” (opens in new tab), Circulation, vol. 114, pp. 1321-1341, 2006.
- Seto AH, Abu-Fadel MS, Sparling JM, Zacharias SJ, Daly TS, Harrison AT, Suh WM, Vera JA, Astonce CE, Winters RJ, Patel PM, Hennebry TA, Kern MJ, “Real-Time Ultrasound Guidance Facilitates Femoral Arterial Access and Reduces Vascular Complications: FAUST (Femoral Arterial Access with Ultrasound Trial)” (opens in new tab), Jacc Cardiovascular Interventions, vol. 3, pp. 751-758, 2010.
- Eeckhout E, Kern MJ, “The coronary no-reflow phenomenon: a review of mechanisms and therapies (Clinical Perspective)” (opens in new tab), European Heart Journal, vol. 22, pp. 729-739, 2001.
- Kern MJ, Samady H, “Current Concepts of Integrated Coronary Physiology in the Cath Lab” (opens in new tab), Journal of the American College of Cardiology, vol. 55, pp. 173-85, 2010.
- Miller DD, Donohue TJ, Younis LT, Bach RG, Aguirre FV, Wittry MD, Goodgold HM, Chaitman BR, Kern MJ, “Correlation of pharmacologic 99mTc-sestamibi myocardial perfusion imaging with poststenotic coronary flow reserve in patients with angiographically intermediate coronary artery stenoses” (opens in new tab), Circulation, vol. 89, pp. 2150-2160, 1994.
- Segal J, Kern MJ, Scott NA, King SB III, Doucette JW, Heuser RR, Ofili E, Siegel R, “Alterations of phasic coronary artery flow velocity in humans during percutaneous coronary angioplasty” (opens in new tab), Journal of the American College of Cardiology, vol. 20, pp. 276-286, 1992.
- Kern MJ, “Coronary physiology revisited: practical insights from the cardiac catheterization laboratory” (opens in new tab), Circulation, vol. 101, pp. 1344-1351, 2000.
- Kern MJ, Aguirre F, Bach R, Donohue T, Segal J, “Augmentation of coronary blood flow by intra-aortic balloon pumping in patients after coronary angioplasty” (opens in new tab), Circulation, vol. 87, pp. 500-511, 1993.
- Ofili EO, Kern MJ, Labovitz AJ, St. Vrain JA, Segal J, Aguirre F, Castello R, “Analysis of coronary blood flow velocity dynamics in angiographically normal and stenosed arteries before and after endolumen enlargement by angioplasty” (opens in new tab), Journal of the American College of Cardiology, vol. 21, pp. 308-316, 1993.
- Goldstein JA, Maini B, Dixon SR, Brilakis ES, Grines CL, Rizik DG, Powers ER, Steinberg DH, Shunk KA, Weisz G, Moreno PR, Kini A, Sharma SK, Hendricks MJ, Sum ST, Madden SP, Muller JE, Stone GW, Kern MJ, “Detection of Lipid-Core Plaques by Intracoronary Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Identifies High Risk of Periprocedural Myocardial Infarction” (opens in new tab), Circulation Cardiovascular Interventions, vol. 4, pp. 429-437, 2011.
Contact Information
Email: mkern@uci.edu
Phone: (714) 456-5427
Address: City Tower, Ste. 400
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Last updated on 5/19/2026.