The Ventura Heart Institute's mission is to provide patients with optimal and cost effective early detection evaluations, cardiovascular risk assessments, and tailored prevention strategies to reduce the risk of having their first or subsequent cardiovascular event. The Ventura Heart Institute was originally created as a separate department within HCA Los Robles Regional Medical Center in 1987 and remained in the hospital until 1998.  It now is a completely independent entity that has consulted with hospitals and healthcare systems on the disease management of high risk and high cost cardiovascular patients  The clinical implementation of wellness and prevention strategies at the level of primary healthcare providers as we move to Accountable Care Organizations and Patient-Centered Medical Homes is another consulting arena.

VHI has screened thousands of individuals for evidence of heart disease, provided heart disease education programs to the public as well as high level professional education programs to physicians and health care providers nationally and regionally. The Institute has participated in over one hundred and thirty research projects that have expanded the drug options to care for many high risk heart patients with elevated cholesterol, high blood pressure, heart failure, irregular heart beats, and those with balloon dilation of tight heart blood vessels. Dr. Irving Kent Loh, VHI's director, also believes that optimal clinical care follows the evidence-based guidelines that come from strong research, diagnostic and teaching platforms exemplified by the programs and services of the Ventura Heart Institute.  With its research partner, Westlake Medical Research, we are expanding our clinical research network into multiple therapeutic categories.

Another major focus of the Ventura Heart Institute is the application of information technology to optimize the management of diseases. The best care for many high risk patient groups has been outlined by several expert panels, yet the ability of providers to deliver that care has many barriers. The pragmatic harnessing of constantly evolving information technology to ensure the best quality and outcome is a cornerstone of surmounting many of these barriers.  Dr. Loh has been the recipient of an international grant from the London-based Future Forum to explore the use of information technology to improve quality and outcome of patient care.  He has presented on this subject in conferences, webcasts, for the American Heart Association's Quality of Care Forum, the University of California - Berkeley (co-sponsored by the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society - CITRIS) and the School of Public Health, and more recently in Boston at the Inaugural America-China Health Summit sponsored by the Harvard School of Public Health. 

However, in the daily management of patients, the Ventura Heart Institute believes that the best treatment of cardiovascular disease is in early detection of cardiovascular disease and prevention of future or recurrent events by using the best proven methods available.