Dr. Kern is a Professor of Medicine at the University of Arizona, where he is the Gordon A. Ewy, MD Distinguished Endowed Chair of Cardiovascular Medicine. Dr. Kern is also a Co-Director of the Sarver Heart Center at the University of Arizona. Following his graduation from Brigham Young University (magna cum laude), he attended Hahnemann Medical College in Philadelphia, where he graduated with honors as Alpha Omega Alpha in 1980. His postgraduate education and training, including his Cardiology Fellowship were at the University of Arizona. Dr. Kern is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians, a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology, a Fellow of the Council of Clinical Cardiology and the Cardiopulmonary, Peri-Operative, and Critical Care Council of the American Heart Association, a Fellow of the American College of Chest Physicians, and a Fellow of the Society of Cardiovascular Angiography and Intervention. Dr. Kern is an active interventional cardiologist. He is a past Governor of Arizona for the American College of Cardiology as well as a Past Chairman of the Emergency Cardiac Care committee for that organization. He was a member of the AHA National ACLS subcommittee from 1994 until 2002, and served as Chairman for three years, during which time the "Guidelines 2000 for CPR and ECC" were completed and published. He served as the chair the Cardiopulmonary, Peri-Operative, and Critical Care Council (2011-13) and is now the current Vice-Chair of the AHA ECC Committee (2015-2017), having just been elected as the Chair-elect for 2018-2019. Dr. Kern's research interests have centered on cardiopulmonary resuscitation and he has been an active investigator of CPR since 1983. He is the Coordinator of the University of Arizona /Sarver Heart Center Resuscitation Research Group, which developed both "Chest Compression-Only Basic Life Support CPR" and "Cardiocerebral Resuscitation". He is currently the PI of the PEARL Study, a pilot RCT examining the utility of early coronary angiography versus not in post arrest patients without ST elevation on their ECGs.
