Joanna Ghobrial, MD

Joanna Ghobrial, MD, MSc, is Medical and Interventional Director of the Adult Congenital Heart Disease Center and staff cardiologist in the Robert and Suzanne Tomsich Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Sydell and Arnold Miller Family Heart, Vascular & Thoracic Institute. She sees patients at the Cleveland Clinic Main Campus.

Specialty Interests: Cardiovascular disease; congenital heart defects/congenital heart disease; heart valve disease, including aortic valve disease, pulmonary valve disease, tricuspid valve disease and mitral valve disease; coronary artery disease.

Education: Dr. Ghobrial earned her undergraduate degree, magna cum laude, and her medical degree from Wayne State University, Detroit, Mich. She completed her internship and residency at Boston Medical Center, Boston University, followed by a fellowship in cardiovascular medicine at the University of Washington (UW), Seattle, Wash. At the same time, she earned a Master’s degree in epidemiology from UW.  Dr. Ghobrial subsequently served a fellowship in interventional cardiology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, and a fellowship in adult congenital heart diseases with a subspecialty in intervention at the Ahmanson/UCLA Adult Congenital Heart Disease Center, University of California, Los Angeles Medical Center, Los Angeles.   

Experience and Outcomes: Cleveland Clinic interventional cardiologists are among the most experienced in the country in non-surgical treatment of pediatric and adult congenital heart disease, with outcomes that are better than national averages. The percutaneous (non-surgical) treatments they perform include aortic and mitral valve repair and atrial septal defect and patent foramen ovale closures.

Research, Publications and Speaking: Dr. Ghobrial has coauthored papers on congenital heart disease, heart attack and related topics in peer-reviewed medical journals and has contributed chapters on non-surgical cardiac interventions to several cardiology textbooks. She also has presented at medical conferences on topics that include the latest techniques for heart valve repair and replacement and her personal research on ethnic differences in sudden cardiac arrest.  

About Dr. Ghobrial: “It is my privilege to care for patients with congenital heart disease. They are warriors who have defied health hurdles since birth. My goal is to help them stay healthy, and live their lives to the fullest. I strive to work together with patients as a team, to understand their goals and help achieve them, whether by close monitoring with clinic visits, medication adjustment, imaging studies or cardiac catheterizations and transcatheter interventions.”

Leisure Activities: In her spare time, Dr. Ghobrial enjoys organizing and being part of global cardiac missions to advance medicine for patients with heart disease in remote areas in the world. She has been on mission trips to Haiti, Kenya, Zaatari refugee camps, and Ethiopia with future plans to go to Tanzania and Brazil. She also enjoys traveling for leisure, hiking, music and comedy.