"Achieving the goal of providing state-of-the-art cardiac care
to the community is a commitment we intend to fulfill,"

Drawn to medicine by the examples of his father and two uncles - who were all practicing medical professionals - Dr. Leppo decided to specialize in nuclear cardiology while doing post-graduate research at Montefiore Hospital in New York City.

That was in the mid-1970s, when Dr. Leppo's specialty was just beginning to evolve from the fundamental principles which were first articulated in the 1920s. These principles envisioned the use of noninvasive tests to evaluate heart disease by introducing small amounts of radioactive substances that are detected by specially-designed cameras and yield highly-detailed images of the heart and its blood flow.

Today, Dr. Leppo is internationally recognized as a leader in the development of nuclear cardiology and in gaining its wide acceptance as an important clinical tool.

He came to Berkshire Medical Center's cardiology department in 2004 from posts at the University of Massachusetts Memorial Health Care in Worcester, where he was an attending cardiologist, Clinical Director of the Division of Nuclear Medicine and interim Chair of the Department of Radiology.

The founding president of the American Society of Nuclear Cardiology, Dr. Leppo was attracted to BMC by a desire to play a leadership role in building a patient-focused center of excellence around cardiology services.

"Achieving the goal of providing state-of-the-art cardiac care to the community is a commitment we intend to fulfill," Dr. Leppo says.

Dr. Leppo received his medical degree in 1973 from the State University of New York Downstate Medical Center. His academic qualifications also include fellowships in cardiology at Montefiore Hospital in the Bronx, N.Y., and at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

Dr. Leppo is Division Chief of Cardiology in the BMC Department of Medicine. He has been included in every issue of the "Best Doctors in America," in the areas of cardiology and nuclear cardiology. With his work widely published in the field of nuclear cardiology, Dr. Leppo serves on a number of national and international committees. He and his wife are the parents of two grown children.