Sushil Karmarkar, MD
“Under Dr. Karmarkar’s superb leadership, Walnut Creek has become a leader in cardiac care. His team has produced spectacular results for our patients.”
Anyone who’s had a cardiac catheterization procedure at Walnut Creek can be thankful to Sushil Karmarkar, MD. He’s a major reason these services are of such high quality, and readily available.
Dr. Karmarkar’s leadership journey began in 1997, when he helped guide the separation of cardiology from the internal medicine department, and then served as Walnut Creek’s first Chief of Cardiology from 1997-2004.
In 2007, he realized his dream of bringing a cardiac cath lab to Walnut Creek to save patients the time of traveling to San Francisco for care. A year later, he led Walnut Creek’s effort to be named a STEMI Receiving Center (ST-segment Elevation Myocardial Infarction), making the medical center a vital part of Contra Costa County’s emergency network.
In 2010, Dr. Karmarkar was instrumental in Walnut Creek’s selection as one of only six sites for a pilot program sponsored by the state of California to implement elective Percutaneous Cardiac Interventions in hospitals without an in-house cardiovascular surgery program. Based on Walnut Creek’s outstanding performance, Dr. Karmarkar was asked to help draft legislation to expand the use of elective PCI to qualified hospitals throughout the state.
“Under Dr. Karmarkar’s superb leadership, Walnut Creek has become a leader in cardiac care,” says Abdul Wali, MD, Chief of Staff. “His team has produced spectacular results for our patients.”