Dr. Jeanne DeCara received her medical degree from Medical College of Pennsylvania. She completed her internal medicine residency and cardiology fellowship training at Boston Medical Center, before joining the faculty in the Department of Medicine in 2000. She is a cardiologist who focuses on consultative cardiology and echocardiography, being one of three full time echocardiography readers at UCM where the annual volume is almost 15,000 echo examinations. In 2010, Dr. DeCara developed the Cardio-Oncology program to address an unmet need for focused cardiac care for cancer patients who have pre-existing cardiovascular disease, at risk for or have developed cardiovascular disease as a result of their cancer treatment. Cardio-Oncology is a natural complement to Dr. DeCara’s imaging expertise, as cardiac imaging is a basic initial assessment of patients who are about to undergo potentially cardiotoxic cancer therapy and is essential in subsequent monitoring for cardiotoxicity. This first-of-a-kind program in Chicagoland offers a service line dedicated to the care of this specific patient population, allowing its cumulative experience to be harnessed to facilitate the implementation of cancer treatment plans in the safest manner possible. Dr. DeCara is now joined by her colleague, Dr. Tamar Polonsky, in expanding the breadth of this program.

Outside of the department, Dr. DeCara is engaged in many professional activities, both at a national and international level. She has served on the editorial board of the Journal of the American Society of Echocardiography and serves on committees of the American Society of Echocardiography (ASE). She contributed to the consensus documents of the ASE on the use of echocardiography in clinical trials and also on the use of imaging in the evaluation of cancer patients. She was a member of the technical panel for the Appropriate Use Criteria for Echocardiography document which has been endorsed by multiple professional societies, and a content reviewer of the American Heart Association/American College of Cardiology guidelines for the management of patients with valvular heart disease. In 2016, Dr. DeCara was elected to the Board of Directors of the Echocardiography Division of the Intersocietal Accreditation Commission.