Dermot Phelan, MD

Dr. Phelan is board certified in internal medicine and cardiology. He has clinical interests in sports cardiology, advanced cardiovascular imaging and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

He specializes in the cardiac care of professional and amateur athletes of all ages and is known around the world for his expertise and groundbreaking research.

Dr. Phelan is director of the Atrium Health Sanger Heart & Vascular Institute Sports Cardiology Center, medical director of Cardiovascular Imaging, and co-director of the Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Center. He established and ran the Sports Cardiology Center at the Cleveland Clinic for over 8 years before moving to North Carolina.

As director of the Sports Cardiology Center, Dr. Phelan runs a busy clinic for the cardiovascular care of athletes. As a member of the American Society of Echocardiography (ASE) Competitive Athlete Writing Group, he has helped write the recommendations for how to best evaluate the heart of the athlete. He is the editor of a book on sports cardiology titled “Care of the Athletic Heart from the Clinic to the Sidelines.”

Dr. Phelan is the team cardiologist for the Carolina Panthers and Charlotte Football Club and serves as the cardiology consultant to the National Football League and Major League Baseball Scouting Combines each year. He is a member of the Cardiac Screening Advisory Committee for both the NFL and the NBA. Dr. Phelan’s passion for the cardiac care of athletes extends beyond professional players to athletes of all skill levels and ages.

He is a member of the American College of Cardiology (ACC) Sports and Exercise Cardiology Leadership Council and is the associate editorial team lead for the ACC Sports and Exercise Cardiology website. Dr. Phelan is the course chair of the ACC National Sports Cardiology Conference, The Care of the Athletic Heart.

He holds numerous leadership positions in professional organizations, including roles with the American Society of Echocardiography and the American College of Cardiology Sports and Exercise Leadership Council. He is a fellow of the American College of Cardiology (FACC) and the American Society of Echocardiology (FASE).

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Phelan has written multiple articles on the evaluation and management of athletes after COVID-19, including serving as first author on the ACC recommendations for the return-to-play cardiac evaluation of athletes post COVID-19 and an international expert consensus statement on the role of multimodality imaging in the evaluation of athletes post COVID-19.

He has lectured nationally and internationally to peer audiences and has been the principal investigator for numerous research trials.

Dr. Phelan received his medical degree and PhD at University College Dublin and completed residencies at St. Vincent's University Hospital and Royal North Shore Hospital. He completed an advanced cardiovascular imaging fellowship at the Cleveland Clinic.