University Hospital Clinic 2, General Internal Medicine

Dr. Kevin Whitehead is an Associate Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine at the University of Utah, and Adjunct Associate Professor of Pediatric Cardiology at Primary Children's Medical Center. He also is an Attending Physician at the George E. Wahlen Veterans Affairs Medical Center. He is co-director of the Utah Adult Congenital Heart Disease Program and is board certified in Internal Medicine, Cardiovascular Disease, Adult Congenital Heart Disease and Comprehensive Echocardiography. He cares for adults with congenital heart disease, heart disease in pregnancy, and other patients with cardiac complications of genetic diseases (such as muscular dystrophies). As an outgrowth of his interests in congenital and genetic cardiovascular diseases, Dr. Whitehead is also the Director of the Utah Hereditary Hemorrhagic Telangiectasia (HHT) Center of Excellence, and in this role provides overall medical management and coordination of care to HHT patients seen at the University. Dr. Whitehead received his M.D. from the University of Alberta, and did an Internal Medicine residency at the University of Western Ontario. He completed Cardiology fellowship and a Cardiovascular Research fellowship at the University of Utah, where he was named a Pfizer Cardiovascular Research Fellow in 2000. He is a fellow of the American Heart Association, and a member of the American Society of Echocardiography and the North American Vascular Biology Organization.

Dr. Eric Volckmann is the Director of the University of Utah Health Care Bariatric Surgery Program at the University Hospital in Salt Lake City. Dr. Volckmann specializes in minimally invasive upper gastrointestinal procedures and bariatric (weight loss) surgery. Dr. Volckmann received his medical degree from the University of North Carolina School of Medicine. He then continued on to his residency in Chicago at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. While at Northwestern, Dr. Volckmann also completed a two-year research fellowship focusing on the development of new minimally invasive surgical techniques. After finishing his surgical residency, Dr. Volckmann then completed a Clinical Assistant Professorship at The Ohio State University Medical Center (one of the oldest training programs in the country focused on minimally invasive surgery) where he gained extensive training in minimally invasive gastrointestinal and bariatric procedures such as laparoscopic gastric bypass, sleeve gastrectomy, and adjustable gastric banding. Dr. Volckmann's other areas of clinical expertise include: diagnostic and interventional flexible upper endoscopy, laparoscopic surgery for complicated gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), hiatal hernias, achalasia, and abdominal wall hernias. Dr. Volckmann's research interests include surgical outcomes and quality, and studying the effects of bariatric surgery on inflammation, nutrition, and gastroesophageal reflux disease.

Christian Con Yost, MD, is a tenured Professor in the Department of Pediatrics within the University of Utah School of Medicine. Dr. Yost serves as the Director for the Neonatal ExtraCorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) program at Primary Children’s Hospital – Salt Lake Campus. He provides clinical care as an attending physician to critically ill patients admitted to the newborn intensive care units at the University of Utah Medical Center, Primary Children’s Hospital – Salt Lake and Miller campuses, and Intermountain Medical Center. His clinical areas of expertise include all aspects of neonatal care with a particular interest in improving clinical outcomes for patients with necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD), congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH), and all neonatal patients requiring ECMO as treatment for cardio-respiratory failure. His translational research program uses preclinical models and clinical samples to determine the beneficial and pathogenic effects of neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) in inflammatory syndromes affecting patients of all ages including sepsis, ischemic stroke, and hypertensive disorders of pregnancy. His research laboratory discovered NET-Inhibitory Peptides, generated by the placenta, which modulate NET formation during human gestation.