Philip Ades, M.D., UVM Professor of Medicine (Photo: UVM COM Design & Photography)

The University of Vermont has created the Philip Ades, M.D., Endowed Professorship in Cardiovascular Disease Prevention, which honors the significant impact of the cardiac rehabilitation and disease prevention work performed by Professor of Medicine Philip Ades, M.D., over his decades-long career.

Ades has dedicated himself to improving the lives of thousands of patients with heart conditions. His research is focused on the important role exercise can play in rehabilitation after a heart attack, as well as the benefits of weight loss in obese coronary heart disease patients. Ades, who also serves as associate director of the Vermont Center on Behavior and Health, played an instrumental role in the national expansion of cardiac rehabilitation services to Medicare recipients with chronic heart failure.

This new position, designed to ensure that Ades’ legacy continues, is to be held by the director of cardiac rehabilitation in the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine at the UVM Medical Center. The endowment will allow the Cardiac Rehabilitation and Prevention Program to continue to grow and evolve to meet the needs of patients, as well as continue to conduct leading-edge research.

The Ades Endowed Professorship was made possible thanks in part to $650,000 raised by grateful patients and family members. A $350,000 gift from the estate of alumna Harriet Dustan, ’42, M.D.’44, a cardiologist and pioneer in the detection and treatment of hypertension, also played a key role in making the $1 million goal of the endowed professorship a reality, as did a $100,000 gift from Ades and his wife, Deborah Rubin, M.D., associate professor of radiology.