Anthony DeMaria is the kind of busy professional who uses both sides of his business card to lists his affiliations. But considering the cardiologist’s varied roles in research, teaching, consulting and clinical care, he might be better off giving out dodecahedrons.

One side of his card presents his titles with UCSD: Judith and Jack White Chair in cardiology, professor of medicine and chief of cardiovascular medicine at UCSD Medical Center. The other side lists DeMaria’s affiliation as editor in chief of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

DeMaria also is an editorial consultant to nearly 30 medical journals, and is a board member of San Diego’s Biosite Diagnostics.

As head of UCSD’s cardiology department, he takes on the role of mentor and promoter. Not wishing to leave anyone out, DeMaria will happily describe in detail the research of his colleagues and how it contributes to the overall strength of care at UCSD Medical Center.

Internationally, DeMaria is considered an expert on cardiac ultrasound, a procedure he favors because it is noninvasive. He regularly takes part in clinical trials of new cardiac diagnostic products.

As a doctor, DeMaria is most interested in research that helps discover, diagnose and manage disease.

“That doesn’t necessarily attract all the public attention that a therapeutic advance like a heart transplant or putting a stent in an occluded coronary artery,” he says. “You have to start with the diagnosis before you can select a therapy.”

Born in 1943 in Bayonne, N.J., DeMaria went to medical school at New Jersey College of Medicine. During that time, he got married. He has three children, two of whom live in San Diego and the other in Fresno, and four grandchildren.

After medical school, DeMaria trained in the U.S. Public Health Service in a hospital on Staten Island, N.Y., and then in cardiology at UC Davis.

“It was the first time in my life I had ever been west of the Mississippi,” he says. “I went to do cardiology training because that hospital had a very strong cardiac research program. I started doing research, and I wound up staying (at UC Davis) for 10 years.”

Kentucky was DeMaria’s next stop, he was recruited to direct the cardiology program at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine and later the Kentucky Heart Institute. “I worked with a group of people who did very well, but always thought if the opportunity arose to return to California, that would be very attractive.”

DeMaria got his wish in 1992, when he was recruited to UCSD to direct its cardiology program.