Fabio V. Lima, MD, MPH, FACC

Structural interventional cardiologist at Florida Cardiac Consultants and Sarasota Memorial Hospital, clinical assistant professor of cardiology at Florida State University College of Medicine 

Fabio embodies the future of cardiovascular medicine, as he is a clinician-scientist who saw where the field was heading with AI and pursued the technology with conviction years before it went “mainstream” in healthcare.  

In 2018, while still a cardiology fellow, Dr. Lima joined the ACC’s Advanced Analytics and Artificial Intelligence Work Group when many if not most cardiologists dismissed machine learning as a fad. That foresight positioned him to shape healthcare’s digital transformation through ACC Innovation Section Leadership Council service, four years judging the NHLBI Innovation Pitch Challenge and co-investigation on NIH-funded AI research detecting pulmonary hypertension. These involvements allowed him to help translate cutting-edge vision into peer-reviewed science. 

Dr. Lima’s clinical acumen matches his innovation leadership. Today, at 38, he performs cutting-edge transcatheter procedures and serves as site co-investigator on structural interventional cardiology trials. His UCSF structural heart training came at a pivotal moment, positioning him at the frontier of transcatheter valve therapies. He earned Best of Structural Cases at SCAI 2024 for complex intervention mastery. 

With more than 35 publications in JACC, Circulation and JAHA, editorial roles at premier journals, triple board certification and extensive ACC leadership, Fabio bridges bedside excellence and national influence. His fluency in Portuguese and Spanish extends cardiovascular care to diverse populations. 

As his colleague Jonathan Hart has noted, Dr. Fabio Lima possesses “the ability to see where cardiovascular medicine is heading before it arrives.” Add this to all his readily observable contributions to the field, and it becomes clear that Dr. Lima is an exceptional candidate for recognition as a Cardiovascular Business 40 Under 40 honoree.