Professor Rahimtoola received his medical degree from the University of Karachi, Pakistan, in 1956. He trained in Cardiology in the UK and then spent 3 years at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota with one year as the co-director of the Cardiac Laboratory at the Mayo Clinic.

Professor Rahimtoola has been a Professor of Medicine at the University of Southern California since 1980. Currently he is Distinguished Professor at the University of Southern California and the George C. Griffith Professor of Cardiology at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California. Professor Rahimtoola received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the Mayo Clinic Foundation in 1998.

 

Professor Rahimtoola has made a number of major contributions in the field of cardiovascular medicine and surgery. Two of these are especially notable, the clinical syndromes 1) of the "hibernating myocardium", and, 2) of valve prosthesis-pctient mismatch.

 

In the case of the hibernating myocardium Professor Rahimtoola first described and named the syndrome and spent half a decade convincing his colleagues of its existence. In total, Professor Rahimtoola has had 497 scientific articles published and has made over 1200 presentations nationally and internationally. He has edited 11 textbooks.

 

Professor Rahimtoola has made many other contributions to the science of cardiovascular medicine and surgery and is very deserving of recognition by the Sheikh Hamdan Awards for Medical Sciences.