Background
Dr. Richard E. Ringel is an emeritus professor of pediatrics and pediatric cardiology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He served as director of the pediatric cardiac catheterization laboratory at Johns Hopkins Children's Center, and co-director of the Heart and Vascular Institute's Adult Congenital Heart Disease Program until 2020. He has retired from clinical practice but continues to collaborate with cardiac catheterization attendings in the performance of complex interventional procedures. He assists with procedures that include non-surgical closure of patent ductus arteriosus; non-surgical device closure of atrial septal defect; stent enlargement of narrowed arterial and venous blood vessels; balloon valvuloplasty for narrowed pulmonary and aortic valves; and transcatheter pulmonary valve replacement.
Dr. Ringel earned his medical degree at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He completed both his pediatric residency and pediatric cardiology fellowship at the University of Maryland Medical Center. He has been a faculty member at Johns Hopkins since 1999.
Additionally, Dr. Ringel served as the sponsor and principal investigator of the multicenter Coarctation of the Aorta Stent Trial (COAST), which for the first time resulted in FDA approval of covered stents for treatment of congenital heart problems, including coarctation of the aorta.
Dr. Ringel no longer accepts patient appointments but is available for consultation by telephone and email as needed.