Dr Matthews was recruited in 2007 to build and lead the section of interventional cardiology at USC. He has 35 years of experience in the catheter based treatment of a wide variety of cardiac disease states. He is well recognized as a pioneer in the performance of coronary interventions in patients too ill for bypass surgery, by using temporary ventricular assist devices during coronary stenting. Dr Mathews was one of the first cardiologists to close congenital heart defects percutaneously in Los Angeles and has since accumulated a large experience in ASD, VSD and PFO closure. Dr Matthews developed a structural heart program at USC over the past decade where he helped USC lead in the early development of TAVR procedures and now has performed well over 1000 of these procedures himself. Through his leadership, USC now has robust programs to percutaneously replace aortic, pulmonic and mitral valves as well.

Dr Matthews maintains a large practice of patients referred with cardiac abnormalities too challenging for community practitioners. He is also a dedicated teacher and scientist. He has trained over 80 interventional cardiologists who have gone on to successful practices all over the US and the world. He is a sought after speaker on the topic of structural heart disease and high risk coronary intervention. He is also involved in research projects to develop implantable sensors that are patient operated to detect heart failure at home and synthetically produced artificial TAVR valves. Dr Matthews continues to innovate and lead in interventional cardiology assisting in the development of numerous medical devices to facilitate the performance of cardiac procedures less invasively, safely and with excellent outcomes.