(2/08/11) – Cardiologist Dr. J. Dale Cannon Jr. of Sumter has joined the McLeod Heart and Vascular Institute team. He will be caring for patients at McLeod Cardiology Associates Sumter.
Dr. Cannon likes working with patients to identify and manage risk factors that could cause life-threatening conditions.

"My passion is early cardiovascular disease detection and treatment," he said. "My goal is to detect an individual’s cardiovascular risk long before any damage or events happen. I work with my patients early in the stages of the disease to try to avoid complications of this disease process.

"Early detection is critical. It is important to clarify a person’s risk levels and then work with them to implement lifestyle changes and get them on appropriate medication to try to stop the disease process in its tracks," he said.

"The exciting thing about practicing in the world of cardiovascular medicine is the multiple facets of my profession that impact patients in all aspects of their disease process," Dr. Cannon said. "We have wonderful interventional cardiologists that are great at implanting balloons and stents, cardiothoracic surgeons who perform bypass surgery and valve repair, and the technologies available to diagnose heart disease at any level of its course in the patient’s disease process are absolutely fascinating."

Dr. Cannon has received national recognition for his work in congestive heart failure and advanced cardiac risk assessment and prevention. He serves as a consultant and regional speaker for several companies in the cardiac arena.

A native of Charleston, Dr. Cannon attended the College of Charleston and the Medical University of South Carolina, receiving his MD degree in 1987. He earned board certification in Internal Medicine in 1990 following resident training at Barnes Hospital at Washington University in St. Louis, Mo., where he served as chief resident.

He earned board certification in Cardiovascular Disease in 1993 after a fellowship at the Medical University of South Carolina. He also is board certified in Nuclear Cardiology.

Dr. Cannon is a fellow of the American College of Cardiology and the Society of Cardiac Angiography and Interventions. In 1993, he joined Sumter Medical Consultants PA, in Sumter in the practice of invasive cardiology and joins McLeod in February 2011.