Dr. Adaya Weissler-Snir has joined the Hartford HealthCare Heart & Vascular Institute to launch an Inherited Cardiovascular Disease program at Hartford Hospital.
“We are delighted to have Dr. Weissler-Snir join our team and develop this new program,” said Dr. Sabet Hashim, director of the Heart & Vascular Institute. “Her expertise will help people with inherited cardiovascular diseases get diagnosed and treated with a range of services—all under one roof.”
Through the new program, Dr. Weissler-Snir will work to identify and treat heart diseases that people can inherit from their parents.
“Dr. Weissler-Snir’s advanced knowledge of inherited cardiomyopathies and inherited arrhythmia disorders will help us better diagnose and treat patients living with these diseases,” said Dr. Steven Zweibel, director of electrophysiology at the Heart & Vascular Institute. “She is an invaluable addition to our team.”
The most common inherited heart condition is hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a disease where the heart muscle grows abnormally. People with this type of cardiomyopathy have a higher risk of life-threatening abnormal heartbeats and sudden death.
“If you have a family member with this condition and you’ve never experienced symptoms like shortness of breath or chest pain, you might think you’re safe,” Dr. Weissler-Snir said. “But there’s a chance it runs in your family and you or your kids are at risk. If you’re not looking for it, you won’t find it. So it’s important to look before it’s too late. ”
Dr. Weissler-Snir is also an expert in managing other inherited cardiac conditions, including right ventricular cardiomyopathy, when critical connections between cardiac muscle cells fail; and inherited problems of the heart rhythm system such as Brugada Syndrome and Long QT Syndrome.
She is also trained to treat muscular dystrophies with cardiac involvement like Emery-Dreifuss muscular dystrophy and myotonic dystrophy, and aortopathies like Marfan syndrome, Ehlers-Danlos syndrome and Loeys-Dietz syndrome.
“Until today, people living nearby might travel out of state to see someone with this expertise,” said Dr. Joseph Radojevic, interim chief of cardiology and director of the Center for Advanced Heart Failure and Pulmonary Vascular Disease at Hartford Hospital. “The program Dr. Weissler-Snir is building will fit perfectly with our platform of coordinated care across the Hartford HealthCare institutes, so we can make vital connections to different areas of expertise right here in this community.”
Dr. Weissler-Snir received her undergraduate and medical degrees from Tel-Aviv University, achieving the latter through the university’s Sackler School of Medicine. She also completed her internship and residency at Tel-Aviv University. She completed a fellowship in Inherited Cardiovascular Disease at the University of London and fellowships in Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy, Inherited Arrhythmia and Electrophysiology from the University of Toronto.
“Having an accomplished colleague like Dr. Weissler-Snir is a real honor,” said Dr. Paul D. Thompson, chief of cardiology emeritus at Hartford Hospital. “She has worked with some of the very best during her fellowships, including Dr. Willliam McKenna, who led the team that discovered the genes for right ventricular myopathy at University College London, and Dr. Harry Rakowski, an internationally known expert in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy at the University of Toronto.”
Dr. Weissler-Snir has published work on inherited cardiac conditions in numerous peer-reviewed publications, and is a member of both the American College of Cardiology and European Society of Cardiology.
Dr. Adaya Weissler-Snir is now accepting patients at Hartford Hospital. Appointments can be made by calling 860.972.1506.