07/30/2025
Dr. David Wiener says he’s a happy man. And no wonder.
He’s spent nearly three decades as a cardiologist at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital and now has patients who are the children and grandchildren of patients who’ve been with him since the beginning of his career. He’s president-elect of the American Society of Echocardiography, the first Jefferson cardiologist to lead a major professional association. And perhaps, best of all, he gets to work with his son, a cardiology fellow, at the hospital.
And to think Dr. Wiener briefly considered majoring in French literature in college – admittedly just to tease his mother. But his love of science and people made his actual career choice obvious.
“Medicine was the best fit,” says Dr. Wiener, Director of Clinical Operations at the Jefferson Heart Institute.
After 38 years of practice – 28 of them at Jefferson – he’s still thrilled with his choice.
“I love what I do,” Dr. Wiener says. “It provides me with an endless source of stimulation and the opportunity to grow professionally. If you ask me would I do it again, I would in a heartbeat – no pun intended.”
On July 1, Dr. Wiener will take the helm of the ASE, a 20,000-member international cardiac imaging society “that furthers the science of cardiac ultrasound by providing education, advocacy, guidelines and standards.” Dr. Wiener has been active for years in the association, “where I honed my leadership abilities by learning from the best.”
“I hope to pay back what I acquired through thoughtful and strategic leadership,” he says.
Dr. Wiener’s devotion to growth and learning also applies to his role as a clinical professor of cardiology at the Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University, where he teaches – and learns from – students, residents and cardiology fellows.
“I get stimulated by my students and rising colleagues,” he says. “It keeps me on my toes and is among the most rewarding things I do.”
And that’s not only because one of those fellows is his son, Dr. Josh Wiener.
“I’m truly lucky to work with my son,” Dr. Wiener says. “He is a superb physician and colleague. It’s fun working together, and the father-son team brings smiles to patients’ faces.”
Dr. Wiener’s daughter is also in medicine; she’s an epidemiologist who concentrates on cancer research. His wife is a prominent Philadelphia area dermatologist, and the conversation over dinner when the children were young was about – what else? – medicine.
“The dinner table talk at night was frank – the good, bad and the ugly,” Dr. Wiener says. “But overall, my wife and I enjoy what we do and feel it’s personally rewarding.”
Dr. Wiener is especially buoyant about the patients who’ve been loyal to him throughout his career.
“I have whole families who’ve been hanging out with me for 30 years,” he says. “We’ve all grown up together.
“I love hearing what people are doing with their lives, who their pets are, what their kids are doing. It lets you understand who they are. We’re not just treating a condition but treating a person.”
Dr. Wiener’s career has spanned a revolution in cardiac care, marked by the invention of sophisticated diagnostic and treatment regimens that were unthinkable when he started practicing medicine.
“As a medical resident, we would stand by and watch patients complete their heart attacks because there was nothing we could do,” he says. “Now we can stop heart attacks. Within an hour of hitting the ER, the patient is in the cardiac cath lab getting a stent and you literally stop the heart damage,” Dr. Wiener says.
Not to mention the powerful prevention and diagnostic tools, from cholesterol drugs to implanted defibrillators to echocardiograms and MRI’s, that didn’t exist when he was a young doctor.
“The first CT scan came out when I was in medical school – and here we are,” he says.
Dr. Wiener’s mother, who’s almost 99, is no doubt happy he decided to become a doctor instead of a French lit major.
They talk on the phone every night.
“She tells me she’s proud of me and my family,” Dr. Wiener says.
No wonder.
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