Dr. Willie Lawrence is board certified in internal medicine with subspecialties in cardiovascular diseases, interventional cardiology and nuclear cardiology. In addition to his Kansas City Super Doctors honor, Dr. Lawrence was named the 2011 national Physician of the Year by the American Heart Association. He is chief of cardiology at Research Medical Center. Dr. Lawrence is the founder and director of Research Medical Center's Congestive Heart Failure program and director of the hospital's cardiac rehabilitation program. He earned his medical degree from Harvard University, completed a residency at the Brigham and Women's Hospital, and completed a cardiology and an interventional fellowship at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. He also serves as a national volunteer expert for the American Heart Association.