Richard Abben, M.D.

Dr. Richard Abben, a native of Illinois, received his undergraduate degree from Augustana College and his medical degree from the University of Illinois' Abraham Lincoln Medical School in Chicago. He completed his internship and residency training in internal medicine at The Johns Hopkins Hospital. He then completed a research and clinical fellowship in cardiovascular diseases at Harvard’s teaching hospital, the Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Following completion of his cardiovascular training, he joined the staff of the Pacific Heart Institute in Santa Monica, California and later became co-director of Interventional Cardiology.

Dr. Abben joined the staff of Cardiovascular Institute of the South in 1988 and currently is the Director of Cardiac Interventions and the Cardiac Arrhythmia Center. He has broad experience in both interventional cardiology and cardiac electrophysiology and is a lecturer, researcher, and published author in both areas. Because of this experience and his long-term commitment to patient care, he has developed a large clinical practice while at CIS. He has particular expertise in cardiac rhythm devices, having been one of the South’s first implanters of a cardiac resynchronization (Biventricular) pacemaker in 1998. His experience has allowed him to organize and direct an ongoing physician’s training course in device therapy. For twenty-five years, he directed an international interventional cardiology symposium entitled Principles and Perspectives in Interventional Cardiology, an annual venue that has consistently attracted the leading minds in interventional cardiology as faculty members. He is a member of the LSU School of Medicine faculty in New Orleans and is an active participant in teaching and clinical activities at that institution.

He is a member and fellow in numerous professional societies, including the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society, the American College of Cardiology, the American College of Physicians, the American Heart Association, the Society for Cardiac Angiography and Interventions, and the Heart Rhythm Society. He is board certified in Internal Medicine and Cardiovascular Diseases and is one of only a handful of physicians in the country who has completed subspecialty certification in both Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiology and Interventional Cardiology. On multiple occasions, he has been named by both Louisiana Life and New Orleans magazines as one of Louisiana's "Top Doctors.” Additionally, he has been recognized as a “Healthcare Hero” by New Orleans City Business magazine.