Torsten P. Vahl, MD, is the Director of Translational Research and is an attending physician at the Columbia Structural Heart and Valve Center and Columbia Interventional Cardiovascular Care at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Irving Medical Center. Dr. Vahl is also an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Columbia University Irving Medical Center. Dr. Vahl is board-certified in interventional cardiology, cardiovascular disease, echocardiography, and internal medicine. He specializes in the percutaneous treatment of coronary artery and structural heart disease and cardiac catheterization. His primary focus is on transcatheter aortic valve replacements, transcatheter mitral valve repair and replacement, and left atrial appendage closure. Dr. Vahl is also very involved in many preclinical and first-in-human studies through his association with the Cardiovascular Research Foundation. For example, Dr. Vahl led the ALIGN-AR trial as a national PI, a position that evolved out of his experience with the device from the preclinical studies. Dr. Vahl frequently proctors other interventional cardiologists on TAVR in aortic regurgitation with the Trilogy valve and on TMVR with the Cephea valve. Within the left atrial appendage closure, Dr. Vahl has been very active in developing our intracardiac echo program which allows patients to get this procedure without the need for general anesthesia and TEE. Dr. Vahl attended medical school at the Philipps-Universität in Marburg, Germany. He did his internal medicine residency and his cardiovascular disease fellowship at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City. He also completed a fellowship in both interventional cardiology and structural interventional cardiology, focusing on valvular heart disease, at Columbia University Irving Medical Center.