Integration of Palliative Care into Heart Failure Care: Consensus-Based Recommendations from HFSA Out Now!
Emer Joyce, MD, PhD

Emer Joyce, MD, PhD


 Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, J3-4, Cleveland Clinic

Dr Emer Joyce is a Consultant Cardiologist specialising in Heart Failure, Mechanical Circulatory Support and Cardiac Transplantation at Mater University Hospital Dublin. She is the National Clinical lead in Advanced Heart Failure and an Assistant Clinical Professor at UCD.

She graduated from the NUIG in 2003 with a first-class honours degree, several National Henry Hutchinson Stewart Scholarship awards including the first-place award for Medicine, and two NUIG gold medals. She completed her medical training at Mater University Hospital Dublin, Ireland, including a 6-month residency in the Mayo Clinic, Minnesota (USA), a period which reinforced her growing interest in Cardiovascular Medicine. She subsequently travelled to the Netherlands to undertake a 2-year doctoral research fellowship in Advanced Cardiovascular Imaging. During this time, she was supported by two awarded competitive scholarships from the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) and from the Irish National Board for Training in Cardiovascular Medicine. She went on to win the Young Investigator Award at Euroecho Imaging in 2012. Her PhD was formally awarded in October 2015.

Dr Joyce subsequently moved to the United States in July 2013 to complete a 2-year ACGME-accredited clinical and research fellowship in Advanced Heart Disease at Brigham and Women’s’ Hospital, Boston, MA. In August 2015, she was invited to join the cardiology faculty at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Ohio as a Consultant Cardiologist specialising in heart failure, cardiomyopathies, and cardiac transplantation, acquiring O visa “Extraordinary Alien” status to do so. Her 3 years in this role was an intensive but deeply rewarding one not just from a clinical and academic perspective, but most importantly, led to the development of multiple lifelong connections and friendships with her colleagues, mentors and co-workers.

Research has been a driving force in her career. Alongside her PhD and associated publications, she was a member of the Heart Failure Research Network during her time in the US which prioritised trials to answer everyday heart failure clinical questions and has served as Principal or Co-Investigator on multiple studies. She continues to conduct research both nationally and internationally through maintained links with US institutions and has supervised numerous fellows and nursing students in their research endeavours. She has published over 50 articles in peer-reviewed medical journals, including several review articles focused on heart failure, cardiomyopathies and advanced heart disease, and authored several book chapters including one on ventricular assist devices for the most recent edition of the ESC Textbook of Cardiovascular Medicine. She was recently appointed Associate Editor for the Journal of Cardiac Failure and serves as an Editorial Board Member for the European Journal of Heart Failure. She has been invited to give numerous Grand Rounds and invited lectures in both the US and UK in addition to multiple presentations at National and International Academic meetings.