Joseph P. Ornato, MD

Joseph P. Ornato, MD is Professor of Emergency Medicine and Internal Medicine (Cardiology) at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Medical Center/Medical College of Virginia in Richmond, Virginia. He is also Affiliated Professor, VCU College of Engineering, Department of Computer Science and Medical Director of the Richmond Ambulance Authority and Richmond Fire and EMS.

Born in New Haven, Connecticut, he graduated from Boston University Medical School magna cum laude and completed his training in Internal Medicine at New York City's Mount Sinai Hospital and in Cardiology at New York Hospital-Cornell University Medical Center. He is triple board certified (Internal Medicine, Cardiology, Emergency Medicine). Dr. Ornato is an active researcher focused on acute cardiovascular/prehospital care and cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Dr. Ornato is American Editor of the journal Resuscitation. He is past Chairman of the American Heart Association's (AHA) National Emergency Cardiovascular Care Committee and its Advanced Cardiac Life Support Subcommittee and served as the AHA’s national representative to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute's National Heart Attack Alert Program's Coordinating Committee and Chairman of its Science Base Subcommittee. Dr. Ornato served as Special Consultant to the Circulatory System Devices Panel of the Food and Drug Administration. He chaired the National Steering Committee on the NIH/AHA/Industry Public Access Defibrillation Trial and was Principal Investigator on a Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Bioterrorism Training grant. 

Dr. Ornato served as Cardiac Co-Chairman of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Resuscitation Outcomes Consortium (ROC) and as Principal Investigator for VCU on the NIH-sponsored Neurological Emergency Treatment Trials (NETT) Network. Dr. Ornato is a member of the prestigious National Academy of Medicine (formerly known as the Institute of Medicine). Among his 29 local, regional, and national awards, he was particularly honored to receive the 2016 American Heart Association’s National Clinical Research Prize, which is bestowed upon only one cardiovascular clinical researcher annually. Dr. Ornato is co-PI for the NIH ICECAP trial and served as PI for a NIH/National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) STTR project exploring delivery of intranasal naloxone by drone to bystanders at the scene of a life-threatening opioid overdose.