16 / FAMILY HEALTH GUIDE / FEBRUARY 2021
INTERVENTIONAL CARDIOLOGIST
Contributed photo
Dr. Mike Sultan, right, and his wife, Becki, moved to Oregon four months ago from Arizona.
New traveling cardiologist eager to see patients
Dr. Sultan will provide consultations during his days in John Day
By Rudy Diaz
Blue Mountain Eagle
A new face will be provid-
ing cardiology services at Blue
Mountain Hospital.
Dr. Mike Sultan, an interven-
tional cardiologist at St. Charles
Hospital in Bend, will travel to
the hospital in John Day to pro-
vide local consultations.
Sultan moved to Bend four
months ago from Phoenix, Ari-
zona, with his wife, Becki.
Before that, he attended medical
school in Chicago, then moved
to Arizona seven years ago to
complete his fellowship, resi-
dency and training. He graduated
from his fellowship last summer.
“We’re totally new here, and
we actually just got married
about seven months ago,” Sul-
tan said. “We are a COVID cou-
ple and got married in the midst
of COVID.”
As an interventional cardiolo-
gist — which specializes in cath-
eter-based treatment of heart dis-
eases — Sultan spends about half
his time seeing patients in clinics
and the other half doing proce-
dures in the cath lab.
He often covers cases of acute
heart attacks that come from St.
Charles or outlying hospitals.
“With an acute heart attack,
there’s a need to mobilize a team
and to have a response to do
emergent procedures,” Sultan
said.
The team of interventional
cardiologists works 24/7 to cover
these emergencies.
“That’s a big portion of our
lives, which is doing emer-
gent cases for people that have
emergent heart attacks,” Sul-
tan said. “That’s a very exciting
and rewarding part of our days
and nights.”
Sultan said the other part of
the job is helping people before
or after a heart attack. This
includes preventative cardiol-
ogy that identifies risk factors
to lower the chances of having
a cardiovascular event.
“As interventionalists, we
do quite a bit of procedures, but
we also do a bit of general car-
diology as well,” Sultan said.
If a primary care provider
at Blue Mountain Hospital has
a patient who needs to see a
cardiologist, they can sched-
ule appointments during one of
Sultan’s days in John Day. He
can then give consultations and
recommendations.
If further workup is needed
that requires resources in Bend,
Sultan can schedule it there.
“My hope is that I can be
kind of that point person where
other primary care doctors or
ER doctors can be able to fil-
ter or focus the needs of cardi-
ology, and then I’m able to pro-
vide that care up there,” Sultan
said.
Sultan would like the com-
munity to know he is eager to
travel to Grant County to see
patients and provide as much
of the care available in Bend to
Blue Mountain Hospital.
“I’m a young cardiologist,”
he said, “but I’m eager to be up
there and see patients.”