Dr. Abu Sharifeh is a Cardiologist who specializes in clinical and Invasive cardiology. He serves as the Section Director for Clinical Cardiology & is the Medical Director for Ambulatory Cardiac Care at UTMB where he also serves as an Assistant Professor and the Mary Wheat-endowed professor in Cardiology.

He finished his medical degree at the University of Jordan, where he graduated with honors, his Internal Medicine training at the University of Texas Medical Branch, and his Clinical Cardiology training at the Houston Methodist DeBakey Heart and vascular center / University of Texas Medical Branch. He is Board certified in Internal Medicine, Cardiovascular Disease, National Board of echocardiography, Certification Board of Nuclear Cardiology and Certification Board of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography.

Dr. Abu Sharifeh’s interests include medical student, resident, and cardiology fellow education as well as patient care. He is an honorary member of the Texas Chapter of the Alpha Omega Alpha Society, and is the recipient of multiple awards, including and on multiple occasions the Jose Esquival Avila Best Teaching Award and William E. McCarron Award for Highest Performance and Professionalism in Medicine. His clinical interests include cardiovascular prevention, multi-modality cardiac imaging, coronary artery disease, and valvular heart disease.

Dr. Abu Sharifeh is a Fellow of American College of Cardiology, the American Society of Echocardiography, and the American Society of Nuclear Cardiology.

Dr. Jose Iturrizaga was born and raised in Lima, Peru where he attended Medical School at Universidad Nacional Federico Villarreal. He then moved to the US in 2007 to pursue his passion for medicine by training in Chicago, Birmingham, and New York. Dr. Iturrizaga specializes in Advanced Heart Failure, Transplant and Pulmonary Hypertension. He ensures his patients are fully knowledgeable about their heart condition, and takes time with each patient and family to answer their questions. Dr. Iturrizaga's goal is to maintain the best quality of life for each and every patient. He loves to read, cook and play soccer, and enjoys spending time with his family.

Dr. Cai completed his residency in internal medicine at Geisinger Medical Center in Pennsylvania. Then he completed his fellowship in cardiology at UTMB and The Methodist DeBakey Heart & Vascular Center in Houston. Dr. Cai joined UTMB Angleton Danbury Campus as an Assistant Professor and medical director in 2014.

Dr. Cai's professional interests include cardiac imaging, clinical cardiology, medical education, and quality improvement in cardiac care. He is board certified in cardiovascular diseases, internal medicine, echocardiography, nuclear cardiology, cardiac CT, and vascular ultrasound. He is a fellow of the American College of Cardiology and the American College of Physicians.

Dr. Cai has been involved in multiple clinical studies and research projects. He has published extensively and serves as a reviewer for a number of medical journals.

Dr. Cai serves cardiac and vascular patients including those with any established cardiovascular diseases. He also provides risk factor management and preoperative evaluation.

Dr. Rangasetty completed his fellowship training in cardiovascular medicine and interventional cardiology at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, TX. He joined UTMB as Assistant Professor of Medicine in Interventional Cardiology in 2011. Dr. Rangasetty has focused on all aspects of interventional cardiology here at UTMB. As Associate Director of the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory at Jennie Sealy Hospital, he has contributed significantly to the establishment of trans-radial, complex coronary and structural interventions. He has worked closely with cardiac surgeons and other interventional cardiologists to establish a TAVR program.

Dr. Rangasetty is the Director of the Interventional Cardiology Fellowship Program, and enjoys mentoring and coaching interventional fellows. Dr. Rangasetty is passionate about his career and loves spending his time in the catheterization laboratory. His intervention skill set consists of: complex coronary lesions (CHIP), transcatheter aortic valve replacements (TAVR), Left atrial appendage closure with watchman device, atrial septal defect and patent foramen ovale (PFO) closures, balloon aortic valvuloplasty, mitral valvuloplasty, percutaneous pulmonary valvuloplasty, cardiomems, and paravalvular leak closures. He also performs carotid, renal, iliac and SFA interventions.

Dr. Sabayon is an established and highly skilled Cardiac Electrophysiologist. His work was informed by his fellowship training at Emory University's nation-leading electrophysiology center. He is skilled in cutting-edge technology and Cardiac Electrophysiology procedures with demonstrated success in complex device implantation and extraction therapies, simple and complex ablation therapies, and left atrial appendage closure therapies. He is a member of the Heart Rhythm Society and has been a keynote speaker on multiple medical platforms. He currently practices at UTMB Clear Lake and League City Campuses and is the Electrophysiology Lab Director at the UTMB Clear Lake Campus and Interim Electrophysiology Lab Director at the UTMB Galveston Campus.

Dr. Albaeni graduated from Damascus University School of Medicine . After moving to USA, he completed his internal medicine residency at St Barnabas hospital/Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York 2011. He began his academic career as an assistant professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University/Bayview Medical Center in Baltimore, Maryland. Thereafter, Dr. Albaeni pursued fellowship training in advanced heart failure and transplant at UTMB 2017-2018. He continued his academic career as an associate program director and associate professor of medicine at Ocal Regional Hospital/University of Central Florida. Dr Albaeni completed cardiovascular disease fellowship at UTMB from 2019-2022. After fellowship graduation he joined UTMB as an assistant professor in invasive cardiology.

His professional interests include clinical cardiology, clinical cardiovascular research and medical education. He is board certified in Echocardiography, Nuclear Cardiology, and Internal Medicine. 

Dr. Prasad is working as a clinical cardiologist for UTMB. He is currently focused on developing cardiology practice in Angleton, TX area.

Dr. Prasad is strongly inclined towards preventive cardiology and thus guides his patients and their families to lead a healthy lifestyle. He believes in risk factor modification by providing patient centered comprehensive cardiovascular treatment options and focused education.

Dr. Prasad graduated from both Internal Medicine & Cardiology fellowship programs from Guthrie Robert Packer Hospital, Sayre, PA. During his training, he was awarded with “Resident of the year 2010” and “Teaching cardiology fellow of the year” continuously all three years in a row (2012 to 2015).

Dr. Kumfa was born in Cameroon, West Africa. He subsequently immigrated to Dallas TX, where he did his undergraduate studies. While at UT Dallas he studied Electrical Engineering and Premed. Thereafter, Dr. Kumfa came to UTMB for medical school. While in medical school he was in the Student Government Association and served as vice president of his class for all 4 years. He stayed at UTMB for Internal Medicine Residency. During residency he was recognized as Outstanding 2nd Year Internal Medicine Resident, and at graduation he was awarded the Don W. Powell Award for Excellence in Internal Medicine Residency. He continued his training at UTMB, where he completed General Cardiology Fellowship and Interventional cardiology. At the end of both fellowship trainings he was awarded the Hutching's Scholarship for Best Graduating Cardiology Fellow. Dr. Kumfa joined UTMB Faculty in 2016 as Assistant Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Cardiology, and Interventional Cardiology. He is passionate about coronary artery disease, peripheral vascular disease and structural heart disease.

Michael Garza is a certified Acute Care nurse practitioner specialized in general cardiology. He has worked at UTMB for over 11 years all within the division of cardiology, most notably in the cardiac Cath and EP labs and as a cardiac device specialist working with pacemaker and defibrillator patients. He has a background in psychiatric nursing prior to cardiology. He obtained his MSN from the University of Texas Health Science Center Houston specialized as an Adult Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner and received all his clinical training with UTMB cardiology providers.

Prior to becoming a nurse, he obtained a BS from UHCL in biology / biotechnology and worked in research on the space flight viral immunity team for NASA at the Johnson Space Center. He has lived in Galveston County his whole life and is dedicated to providing the highest quality care to his patients. In his free time, he enjoys spending time with his wife, two sons, family, and friends.

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