Harold Ira Litt MD, PhD

Dr. Harold Litt is a distinguished physician-scientist specializing in cardiothoracic imaging. He is Professor of Radiology at the Perelman School of Medicine of the University of Pennsylvania, where he previously served as Chief of the Cardiothoracic Imaging Division. He is now Director of Research for the Imaging Institute of the Cleveland Clinic Florida. Dr. Litt holds both an M.D. and a Ph.D. from the State University of New York at Buffalo, completed in 1996. He also earned an A.B. and an A.M. in Physics from Harvard University in 1988. His research interests encompass coronary CT imaging, cardiac MRI, and the development of advanced imaging techniques to assess heart structure and function. Notably, he was the principal investigator of the ACRIN-PA 4005 multicenter trial, which evaluated the use of coronary CT in emergency department patients with chest pain. The results of this study were published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2012. Dr. Litt is actively involved in the Society for Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance (SCMR), having served as chair of its membership committee and contributing to its international outreach efforts, including organizing courses in South Africa, China, India, Peru, and Argentina. He currently serves as Deputy Editor for Cardiac MRI for the journal Radiology: Cardiothoracic Imaging.