Dr. Anne Curtis
USF Health
Professor of Medicine
Chief, Division of Cardiology

Dr. Anne Curtis is Professor of Medicine, Chief of the Division of Cardiology, and Director of Cardiovascular Services at the University of South Florida in Tampa, Florida. Despite her demanding schedule, Dr. Curtis always makes time to eat right and exercise. “I was at the fitness center this morning before I came to work,” she tells me on the morning of our interview. She rarely skips a meal. An informed but behavioral-based dedication to health and wellness guides her throughout the busy day.

Commitment-Based Care

Commitment is a common theme in Dr. Curtis’s life. At USF, she is actively involved in patient care, education of fellows and residents, and clinical research in electrophysiology and pacing. “I’ve been here four years,” she says. “We’ve grown quite a bit, we’ve brought in a lot of new faculty, and I think we have really enhanced the stature of our cardiovascular program within USF Health and within the community. We are getting a lot of patients referred to us, a lot of people are turning to us for our expertise, and the fact that the program is growing this way is a source of pride for me.” On a national level, Dr. Curtis is involved in a number of prominent professional organizations. She is the Immediate Past President of the Heart Rhythm Society. She is currently chair of the Governance Committee, a member of the Board of Trustees and the Finance Committee and is the former chair of the Continuing Medical Education, Marketing, and Health Policy Committees. She was also recently elected to the Association of University Cardiologists (AUC). The AUC organization limits its active membership to 125 academic cardiologists from the United States. Dr. Curtis was one of only seven physicians in the country chosen by the AUC at the group’s annual scientific and business meeting this past January in California. She will be inducted during the AUC meeting held January 2010 in St. Petersburg, FL.

Dr. Curtis has not always served the Tampa Bay Area directly. She established the electrophysiology program at the University of Florida in Gainesville in 1986 and was Director of Clinical Electrophysiology there until 2005. “I built it from scratch, and I built it to a very good program,” she recalls from her work at UF. “By the time I got done, though, I felt like I had done all I could with that, so my ambition was to take over an entire cardiology program—all aspects of it, not just Electrophysiology. That’s what I’ve been working on here at USF, and that’s what I’m very happy to see going in the direction that I want it to.”

Dr. Curtis encourages her patients and the public to develop a commitment to heart health very early.  Exactly when should we start to be concerned? “The earlier the better,” Dr. Curtis answers. “I don’t think it’s the sort of thing where you can eat and do whatever you want until you hit middle age and then suddenly decide that you’re going to do things the right way. So I think it is important to get going at an early age. Eating right and exercising is a lot of it. If you do that, it will go a long way toward keeping yourself healthy.” 

Controllable
Factors in Cardio-vascular Health

Dr. Curtis’s advice points to the fact that cardiovascular health may be threatened without the presence of overt symptoms. Moreover, the public health problem of obesity is directly linked to our decline in cardiovascular health. “The statistics on obesity are scary,” Dr. Curtis confirms. “The American Public is getting heavier and heavier, and that’s going down to younger ages, too. It can cause elevations in blood pressure, it can cause glucose intolerance, it can cause lipid abnormalities—none of which actually cause overt symptoms at an early age...So if you have mild hypertension, if you don’t handle your glucose well, or if your cholesterol is a little high, that doesn’t specifically cause these symptoms. People don’t know that they are a ticking time bomb down the road. It’s important to be aware that those things can be going on and take action against them.” 

Fortunately, Dr. Curtis advocates for health-based behavior that is already a part of her life. Since she eats nutritious meals and exercises regularly, she doesn’t ask her patients to do anything that she isn’t already committed to herself. Heart disease involves both controllable and uncontrollable factors. Hence, Dr. Curtis focuses on those aspects which we can control. “You can’t help genes,” she explains. “Some people are fortunate and some are not in that respect. I’m very lucky that there isn’t any heart disease in my family, but that is not something I had control over one way or the other. Other people have terrible family histories, but they do have control over their behaviors. Whatever your family history, with the proper behavior, you can minimize your chances of developing cardiovascular disease.” 

Besides nutrition, fitness is another behavioral-based aspect of cardiovascular health.  Dr. Curtis is an avid fitness enthusiast and was more than happy to provide more details:  “I’m a tennis player,” Dr. Curtis says. “I only get to do it on weekends, but I really like playing tennis. I run. That’s actually one of the reasons why I was happy to hear from your magazine, because I’m a big believer in fitness. I was at the fitness center this morning before I came to work. I’ve been running regularly since I was in my 20’s. I run three miles several days a week, whenever I can. That’s usually during the week, because that’s easier to fit in. I work out with weights twice a week. I fit the tennis in when I can, so those are my stress busters and activities to keep myself healthy.”
 “Do you think that women take their heart health as seriously as men?” we asked Dr. Curtis. After all, women are just as capable of committing to health and wellness as are men. “I think a lot of people think of heart disease as a male problem, and it’s truly not,” Dr. Curtis says. “Cardiovascular disease is the #1 killer in women, too. That’s actually one of the reasons that I applaud the American Heart Association’s Go Red for Heart Program, because it really has been trying to highlight the fact that women need to pay attention to this too. I think it’s partly because we think of it as a male disease, which I said is not true. I also think that sometimes, it’s partly the role that women assume as caretakers of others. They don’t always take care of themselves well enough. So, eating right and exercising always seems to be something that is left for last, because maybe you think you are selfish doing it because it’s not benefiting anyone else, but we need to be as healthy for as long as we can, too.”

Dr. Curtis will continue her work at USF and through the national organizations of which she is a part. Her current research career includes participation as a member of the steering committees for the Pac-a-Tach (Pacing and Atrial Tachycardia) and ABCD (Alternans Before Cardiac Defibrillator) trials, and her involvement in the AFFIRM, MIRACLE, SCD-HeFT, and COMPANION trials among others. She also plans to continue running, playing tennis, and spending time with her husband and their yellow Labrador named Lucky. At the time of this interview, Dr. Curtis was just about to leave for Paris to watch her son play in the French open. Her eldest child just started medical school two months ago. Thanks to Dr. Curtis for spending some time with us this month and for educating us on how to have a healthier heart.

You can learn more about Dr. Curtis and her work by visiting the following website: health.usf.edu/medicine/cardio_crisp/faculty/curtis.htm

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