Thomas Graham, M.D.
Chair established in name of Thomas Graham, M.D.
Thomas Doyle, M.D.
Renowned Vanderbilt University Medical Center cardiologist Thomas P. Graham, M.D., will soon be honored with the creation of an endowed chair in Pediatric Cardiology bearing his name. A campaign to fund the chair is currently under way.
“I am so incredibly honored by the naming of this chair,” Graham said. “I get choked up about it.”
Graham joined Vanderbilt Children's Hospital in 1971 to start its first Pediatric Cardiology program, and served as chief of the division until his semi-retirement last year. He reduced his clinic hours by half, and now sees Pediatric Cardiology patients twice a week.
Graham is a graduate of the Duke University Medical Center. He completed his pediatric residency at Boston Children's Hospital and spent two years at the National Institutes of Health in the departments of Cardiology and Physiology. He completed his fellowship training in Pediatric Cardiology at Duke, and joined the Duke faculty's division of Pediatric Cardiology.
During his long and distinguished career, he served as interim chair of Vanderbilt's Department of Pediatrics, as vice chair for Clinical Affairs in the department, and as chair of the Medical Center Medical Board.
Graham was named the Ann and Monroe Carell Family Professor of Pediatric Cardiology in 1985. The new holder of that chair will be Thomas Doyle, M.D., associate professor of Pediatrics and director of the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory in the Division of Pediatric Cardiology.
“Receiving the chair 20 years ago was quite an honor,” Graham said. “After going to a half-time schedule last year, I knew that it needed to go to someone else, and I am delighted that it will go to Dr. Doyle.”
Graham added, “He is very deserving, and I know we'll continue to see great things out of him in the future. I am proud of his accomplishments and I know he'll accomplish even more.”
Doyle is a graduate of the University of Arizona School of Medicine. He completed his internship and was chief resident in Pediatrics at the University of Maryland, and completed a fellowship in Pediatric Cardiology at Yale University.
He joined Vanderbilt Children's Hospital in 1994 to start the first pediatric interventional cardiology program, after meeting with Graham.
“I do not feel worthy of this honor,” Doyle said. “I'm a little worried about this. It's an unbelievable honor to inherit this from Dr. Graham. He is the reason I came to Vanderbilt. He encouraged me to do things right out of my fellowship that I wasn't certain I could do, and he supported me throughout my efforts to build an interventional cardiology program.”
Doyle added, “I look at Dr. Graham as someone who is a true gentleman in every sense of the word. He is a wonderful husband, a superb father and a doting grandfather — and at the same time, one of the most respected, intelligent pediatric cardiologists in the world.”
Doyle said he was very thankful and appreciative of Monroe Carell Jr. and his wife, Ann, for continuing to fund the chair in the Pediatric Cardiology division.
“This is a family that, through their generosity, has impacted the lives of thousands of children and that is a non-repayable debt,” Doyle said.
Scott Baldwin, M.D., the new chief of Pediatric Cardiology, added, “I cannot think of a better person than Tom Doyle to carry on the legacy of the Monroe Carell Chair in Pediatric Cardiology.
“Dr. Graham has served as an exemplary model for academic pediatric cardiologists worldwide and I think Tom Doyle is certainly following in his footsteps. Utilization of a portion of the Carell Chair Endowment to fund a fourth-year fellow in Interventional Cardiology provides a unique opportunity for Dr. Doyle to share his talents by training the next generation of leaders in the field.”