Pinehurst Cardiology Consultants to Join FHC Cardiology Services

PINEHURST – The four board certified cardiologists with Pinehurst Cardiology Consultants will come under the organizational umbrella of FirstHealth of the Carolinas when they join FirstHealth Cardiology Services next month.

Peter L. Duffy, M.D.; Peter J. Vassallo, M.D.; H. Allen Strunk Jr., D.O.; and Mark D. Landers, M.D., will become affiliated with a FirstHealth cardiology program that already includes structural and interventional cardiologist Stephen J. Filby, M.D.

Following the Oct. 1 consolidation of services with FirstHealth, the four Pinehurst Cardiology Consultants cardiologists will continue to see patients in their current location in the Heather Glen Office Park at 7 Regional Circle, Pinehurst. Other than the management of patient medical financial accounts, which will come from FirstHealth, as well as some diagnostic testing at Reid Heart Center, the practice will operate without change and patients should experience a seamless transition.

Since its founding in 1996, Pinehurst Cardiology Consultants has been identified as a leader in the practice of cardiology, receiving the prestigious Bridges to Excellence award and participating in the Cardiovascular Practice Improvement Program of the American College of Cardiology. According to Dr. Duffy, the affiliation with FirstHealth and Moore Regional Hospital – recently ranked the fifth best hospital in North Carolina by U.S. News and World Report – will further enhance that reputation.

“We are proud to partner with FirstHealth,” Dr. Duffy says. “Combining our resources with those of FirstHealth will improve care for our patients in all areas of quality, making it more effective, efficient, equitable, timely, patient-centered and safe. My partners and I are excited about the opportunity to raise the bar on patient services beyond what we already provide. This alliance will also afford us the opportunity to focus more on the medical needs of our patients and our community and less on the administrative duties that come with running any small business.”

Dr. Duffy is a Diplomate of the National Board of Medical Examiners and the American Board of Internal Medicine and a Fellow in the American College of Cardiology and the Society of Coronary Angiography and Interventions for which he currently serves on the Board of Trustees. He is also co-chair of the Medical Directors Institute at the American College of Cardiology.

His areas of expertise include chest pain evaluation, heart attack care, cardiac catheterization and coronary angioplasty including stent placement and rotational atherectomy.

Dr. Vassallo is certified in both internal medicine and cardiovascular disease by the American Board of Internal Medicine. Also certified by the Board of Nuclear Cardiology, he is a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology. His areas of interest include noninvasive nuclear cardiology, myocardial perfusion imaging, cardiac catheterization and transesophageal echocardiography.

Dr. Strunk is certified in both internal medicine and cardiovascular disease by the American Board of Internal Medicine and is a member of the American College of Cardiology and the American College of Physicians. His special interests include cardiac catheterization, echocardiography, nuclear cardiology, clinical cardiology and congestive heart failure.

Dr. Landers is a Diplomate in both clinical cardiac electrophysiology and cardiovascular disease with the American Board of Internal Medicine, a fellow in the American College of Cardiology and a member of the Heart Rhythm Society. An electrophysiologist, he specializes in the treatment of heart rhythm disorders. 

 “As one of the premier providers of cardiology services in North Carolina and the Southeast, we will continue to provide the highest possible level of care to our patients at Reid Heart Center and this new affiliation with Drs. Duffy, Vassallo, Strunk and Landers can only assist us with that goal,” says John F. Krahnert Jr., FirstHealth’s chief medical officer.

“The community served by FirstHealth has always been supportive of our cardiac program, and we are pleased to return that support through the care and resources of our program. Together with Pinehurst Medical Clinic’s cardiologists, these four specialists, Dr. Filby and three cardiac surgeons, FirstHealth is capable of meeting the advanced cardiac needs of the region.”

Dr. Duffy agrees. “Our goal is to create a community hospital that is recognized nationally as the one providing the highest quality cardiovascular care in the U.S.,” he says. “This can only happen through our direct affiliation with FirstHealth, an organization already recognized for its excellence.”

By joining FirstHealth, Pinehurst Cardiology Consultants will become part of the FirstHealth Physician Group, an organization of FirstHealth-employed physicians from a variety of specialties including hospital medicine, cardiovascular thoracic surgery, neonatology, neurosurgery, infectious diseases, psychiatry, obstetrics and gynecology, family practice medicine and internal medicine as well as the physician assistants and nurse practitioners who work with them.