Physician, Associate Professor
Advanced Heart Failure and Transplant Cardiology, Cardiovascular Disease
Department: Internal Medicine
I am a heart-failure transplant cardiologist, and I believe that the gift of life is truly amazing. I am particularly interested in working with patients that are critically ill and working together towards improving their quality of life.
I am a firm believer in providing individualized care to my patients. I take this approach in the clinic and when I'm designing new translational research projects.
I enjoy working at a large academic medical center such as The Ohio State University because I am able to interact with world leaders in different fields of study. I am constantly provided with opportunities to be educationally engaged.
In my free time I enjoy playing basketball, spending time with my family, traveling and attending Ohio State football games.
Please note: Not all physicians schedule patients at each listed location.
I am an associate professor and the vice chair for Diversity & Inclusion in the Department of Internal Medicine at The Ohio State University. I serve as the associate program director for the Cardiovascular Fellowship Training Program and I am also a member of the Translational Therapeutics Program at the OSUCCC - James.
As a Heart failure (HF)-transplant cardiologist, I routinely see patients who have had increased cancer-free survival due to anti-cancer treatment. However, many of them go on to develop cardiotoxic side effects including overt HF. My goal is to generate new mechanistic data using in vitro and in vivo models to determine the underlying cardiotoxic pathways that anti-cancer therapy has on the heart. My mission is to translate these findings to other disease states and pathways by using novel methods and technologies, including inducible pluripotent stem cell cardiomyocytes and cardiovascular optogenetics.?
My research has also found that ßII spectrin associates with ankyrin- B and represents an integrative node for assembly of the cardiac junctional dyad. My lab has discovered a novel mutation in the human ankyrin-B gene that disrupts the ankyrin-B/ßII spectrin interaction leading to severe human arrhythmia phenotypes. My team and I have observed aberrant ßII spectrin regulation in multiple forms of human heart failure and arrhythmia and accelerated heart failure phenotypes in ßII spectrin-deficient cardiac-specific mice.
My original research has been widely published in peer-reviewed journals and I regular present before respected institutions across the United States. I have been recognized with awards such as Distinguished Researcher of the Year from the Landacre Research Honor Society and I was selected as the Bob Frick Research Chair in Heart Failure and Arrhythmia in 2022.
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At The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, we support a faculty member’s research and consulting in collaboration with medical device, research and/or drug companies because a faculty member’s expertise can guide important advancements in the practice of medicine and improve patient care. In order to provide effective management of these relationships, the University requires annual disclosures from all faculty members with external interests related to their University responsibilities.
As of 11/3/2025, Sakima Smith has reported no relationships with companies or entities.
