Amanda Vest, MBBS

Amanda Vest, MBBS, MPH, FHFSA, FAHA, FACC, is Section Head of Heart Failure and Transplantation Cardiology in The Tomsich Family Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Miller Family Heart, Vascular & Thoracic Institute. She sees patients at Main Campus.

Specialty Interests: Heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF), heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF), cardiomyopathy, sarcoidosis, cardiogenic shock, obesity, cardiac cachexia.

Experience: Dr. Vest has extensive experience in helping patients with heart failure manage their condition in ways that improve their quality of life with a focus on diet and nutrition. She is a fellow of the Heart Failure Society of America, American Heart Association and American College of Cardiology and an author of the 2022 AHA/ACC/HFSA Guideline for the Management of Heart Failure. She is also a Diplomate of the American Board of Obesity Medicine.

Success Rates: Cleveland Clinic is nationally and internationally
renowned for its cardiovascular care, drawing patients from across the country and around the world. To learn about patient outcomes for specific conditions and procedures at Cleveland Clinic, go to: https://my.clevelandclinic.org/departments/heart/outcomes/358-institute-summary

Education: Dr. Vest received her medical degree from Imperial College School of Medicine, London, United Kingdom, graduating with Distinction. She also holds a master’s degree in public health from the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, Boston. She completed her internal medicine residency at Boston University Medical Center, Boston, with an additional year as Chief Resident. She came to Cleveland Clinic following her residency for a three-year fellowship in cardiovascular medicine and completed her training at Cleveland Clinic as a fellow in advanced heart failure and cardiac transplantation.

Prior to her 2024 appointment to the Cleveland Clinic medical staff, Dr. Vest was the medical director of the Cardiac Transplantation Program at Tufts Medical Center, Boston, a position she held since 2018. She co-directed the Clinical Nutritional course at Tufts University School of Medicine.

Research, Publications and Speaking: Dr. Vest is a dedicated physician-researcher with a primary research focus on nutrition and metabolism in patients with heart failure (HF). She has established a Nutrition-Heart Failure research program studying the relationships between obesity and HF, and mechanisms of the muscle wasting that characterizes cardiac cachexia.

Her research has demonstrated that left ventricular assist devices (LVADs) can improve the metabolic dysfunction seen in patients with advanced HF, and that improvements in metabolism are associated with increased survival. Her work also demonstrates that patients who receive an LVAD tend to gain muscle mass in the first few months of device support. Her current clinical trial is investigating whether a dietary protein supplement can also reverse skeletal muscle wasting. Her ultimate research goal is to develop nutritional and metabolic therapies that improve both body composition and survival in patients with HF.

Dr. Vest’s research funding has included grants from the American Heart Association, National Institutes of Health Heart Lung and Blood Institute and Center for Advancing Translational Sciences. She has published extensively on her research in notable peer-reviewed medical journals, including Circulation, Circulation: Heart Failure, and Journal of the American College of Cardiology: Heart Failure, and currently serves on the editorial boards of two journals.

She also has coauthored review articles and editorials in leading cardiology journals and more than a dozen chapters in cardiology and HF textbooks. She frequently is an invited presenter at major medical meetings, scientific sessions and podcasts, speaking on obesity and nutrition in patients with HF, cardiac cachexia, and innovations in heart transplantation and HF therapies.

Leisure Activities: Outside of work, Dr. Vest enjoys swimming, weightlifting, and traveling.

About Dr. Vest: “I have always been interested in the science of heart-pumping function and find it rewarding to clinically participate in a field where we can make such a difference to patients’ lives. I feel fortunate that my career as a heart failure cardiologist has coincided with so much exciting innovation in the medications, devices and transplant technologies that we can offer to our patients.”