Brian Allan Houston, MD

Dr. Valerian Fernandes received his MBBS degree from St. John’s Medical College, Bangalore in 1989 and his post graduate M.D. (internal medicine) degree from Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) Chandigarh, India in 1992. He received his MRCP degree in 1994 (Member of Royal College of Physicians-UK). In the U.S. he did his internship at St. Luke-Roosevelt Hospital in New York and completed his internal medicine residency at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota in 1997. His cardiology and interventional cardiology fellowship training was done at the Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas from 1997 to 2001. Since his training, he has been on the MUSC faculty as an assistant professor of medicine and as a staff physician and director of the cardiac catheterization laboratories at the Ralph H. Johnson VA Medical Center.Dr. Fernandes is board certified in cardiovascular disease and interventional cardiology. He is level III echocardiography trained and certified and also level II nuclear cardiology trained and certified.Dr. Fernandes’ clinical and research interests include complex coronary interventions, rotational atherectomy, vulnerable plaque evaluation and treatment, acute coronary syndromes, alcohol septal ablation for hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy, peripheral arterial intervention and Doppler and transesophageal echocardiography. He is the only certified percutaneous mitral valvuloplasty practitioner in the state of South Carolina.Dr. Fernandes has been a principal investigator in several trials and has also co-authored many publications. He is very active in teaching and medical education and has received many teaching awards and nominations. He is a reviewer for medical journals and a fellow of the American College of Cardiology.

Dr. Pinckney Maxwell earned his medical degree here at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, South Carolina. He completed his residency in general surgery at the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center in New Orleans. He subsequently completed his fellowship at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia to obtain specialized training in colon and rectal surgery. He was invited to remain at Thomas Jefferson on the faculty for several years before returning to his alma mater here at MUSC in 2011. Dr. Maxwell specializes in the surgical treatment of diseases of the colon, rectum and anus. His areas of expertise include colon and rectal cancer; inflammatory bowel diseases such as ulcerative colitis and Crohns disease; benign colonic diseases such as diverticulitis and rectal prolapse; fecal incontinence; benign anorectal diseases such hemorrhoids and anal fissures; and colonoscopy for screening, surveillance, diagnosis, and therapeutics. He is a specialist in advanced laparoscopic colorectal surgery, using minimally invasive techniques to treat many of these diseases. He also works in close collaboration with gastroenterologists, medical oncologists, radiation oncologists, urologists and interventional radiologists to develop multidisciplinary and individualized management strategies for his patients.

Dr. Christopher Nielsen obtained an undergraduate degree in chemistry from the University of North Carolina in 1986. He received his M.D. from Bowman Gray School of Medicine at Wake Forest in 1990. He did his internal medicine and cardiology training at the Medical University of South Carolina. After completing his training, Dr. Nielsen practiced cardiology in Columbia, South Carolina for two years before returning to MUSC as a faculty member in 1998. Dr. Nielsen's clinical and research interests include: complex coronary artery intervention, acute coronary syndromes, alcohol septal ablation for hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy, percutaneous closure of atrial septal defect and patent foramen ovale, coronary CT angiography, and renal artery stenosis.