New cardiologist helps fulfill growing need in the Mat-Su

Board-certified, interventional cardiologist, Ellen Gallant, MD, joined the staff of Mat-Su Regional Medical Center in mid-August in order to serve as the first employed cardiologist in the hospital’s new Mat-Su Heart clinic.

Gallant moved to the Matanuska Valley from Helena, Montana where she served for the past year at St. Peter’s Medical Center. She has been hired at Mat-Su Regional to fulfill a growing need for cardiology care in the Valley, and according to Gallant who is an avid mountain climber, making the transition to Alaska was an easy choice.

“All the incredible athletic activities here, and the beauty, is what drew me,” she said.

Gallant was born and raised in Boston and started her education at Columbia University in New York. Her extensive professional history includes three fellowships, board certification in nuclear cardiology and cardiovascular disease, and 20 years of experience as an interventional cardiologist.

Her desire to be in the medical field was set in stone at a very young age and was encouraged by her father.

“I used to say I wanted to be a nurse, then at some point my father, when I was still really little, said, ‘Ellen, why don’t you want to be a doctor?’ And of course I was a daddy’s girl and I said, ‘I’m going to be a doctor,’” she said.

Gallant performs general cardiology procedures, including angioplasty and stenting. She also does permanent pacemakers, echoes, cardioversions and reads surface echoes and transesophageal echoes, but for many patients her focus is in prevention.

Much of her time is spent talking to patients about eating habits, exercise and what their numbers should be in order to prevent a major event like a heart attack. Unfortunately, modern healthcare does not focus enough on prevention, according to Gallant.

“Even insurance these days, if a high-risk patient hasn’t had their event yet, they don’t pay for the education and the cardiac rehab. It’s only after they’ve had their big heart attack,” she said.

Surgery is part of the job, but a personal connection alongside is vital. What Gallant enjoys most is getting to know her patients and she credits her personable approach as one of her greatest strengths.

“I always think it’s really fun to just sit down and talk about who they are and what they like to do,” she said.

One of her favorite memories is of a patient — a police officer — who had heart attack on Christmas Eve. He survived it, and then came back to see her the next Christmas Eve with a thank you card on his one year anniversary since Gallant saved his life.

Throughout her career, Gallant has taken regular breaks to spend time climbing mountains all over the world. She scaled Denali in 2006, and tried twice to summit Mt. Everest, before finally reaching the peak on her third attempt in 2017.

Her other hobbies include mountain-biking, road cycling, hiking, and stand-up paddle-boarding. If she had not gone into the medical field, she would have been a professional mountain guide, according to Gallant.

Gallant is the first full-time cardiologist employed by Mat-Su Regional Medical Center. Appointments can be made through Mat-Su Heart at (907) 861-6700.

“With Dr. Gallant being based full-time in the Valley, more patients will receive the care they need here at Mat-Su Regional – closer to come,” said hospital CEO, Dave Wallace. “In a discipline where time-to-treat is such a critical factor, this is vital.”

Mat-Su Regional Medical Center is your community healthcare provider; a 109-bed facility with a wide range of inpatient and outpatient care, diagnostic imaging and emergency, medical and surgical services. Mat-Su Regional Medical Center is affiliated with the Mayo Clinic Care Network and also offers a sleep lab, cardiac catheterization lab, wound care, three off-site urgent care facilities, robotic surgery and advanced total hip replacement procedures.