Kathryn L. Dawson, MD

I decided on cardiology because the heart and its physiology made sense to me, intuitively. During fellowship I enjoyed working with my hands and making decisions quickly during emergencies in the cath lab, so I pursued additional training in interventional cardiology. I then sub-specialized in high-risk PCI and chronic total occlusions because I wanted to be able to offer patients the complete breadth of options for management of their coronary artery disease. I was struck by several patients in fellowship who had been discharged on hospice from other institutions due to left main disease because they were not felt to be surgical candidates. PCI has advanced substantially in recent years, allowing us to provide most patients with thorough revascularization with good long-term outcomes. It is important to me to be able to offer these options to patients if it is within their goals of care. I find a great deal of value in having risk/benefit discussions with every patient to determine the procedures that best fit their needs. My medical school training was completed in my home state of Nevada at the University of Nevada School of Medicine. I then completed my internal medicine residency at Oregon Health and Science University here in Portland. I then went to the University of Washington in Seattle for cardiology fellowship, interventional cardiology fellowship and stayed on for an additional year in high risk and CTO PCI. In my free time I enjoy hiking with my family and trying new restaurants as well as spending a decent amount of time chasing our toddler son. I feel my most important role as a provider is to provide patients with options when they have coronary artery disease that is considered high risk and/or not suitable for surgery. Whether that is due to their medical co-morbidities, heart failure or the extent of their coronary artery disease.