Joel A. Garcia-Fernandez, MD - Cardiology - Interventional

Dr. Joel Garcia is a board-certified cardiologist at the Orlando Health Heart and Vascular Institute. He is board certified in internal medicine, cardiovascular disease, interventional cardiology and endovascular medicine, and his expertise includes:

• Structural heart interventions for aortic, mitral and tricuspid valve disease
• Trans-catheter aortic valve replacement
• Mitral valve clips
• Paravalvular leaks
• Ventricular septal defect
• Atrial septal defect
• Patent foramen ovale
• Pulmonary embolism thrombectomy
• Catheter directed thrombolysis
• Lower extremity arterial and carotid revascularization
• Coronary/peripheral chronic total occlusion work
• Left ventricular unloading
• Vascular interpretation
• Coronary and device reconstruction

Dr. Garcia’s clinical interests include coronary and device reconstructions, advanced imaging, rotational angiography and 3D modeling. He has been instrumental in technologies such as optical coherence tomography and fractional flow reserve.

Dr. Garcia’s Training

Dr. Garcia received his medical training at Pontifical Catholic University Madre y Maestra in the Dominican Republic. He completed an internal medicine residency at Wayne State University in Detroit and fellowships in cardiovascular disease and interventional cardiology/peripheral disease at the University of Colorado in Denver.

He earned several residency and fellowship honors and awards. At Wayne State, he was named Outstanding Intern of the Year, Outstanding Second Year Resident, Outstanding Third Year Resident, won two clinical pathologic case awards and was named outpatient resident of the year from 2002-2003. At Colorado, he was named Outstanding First Year Fellow and Outstanding Research Fellow. He also received the 2013 Faculty Teaching Award.

About Dr. Garcia

Dr. Garcia is a scientific board member of the World Congress of Heart Disease Annual Scientific Sessions and a fellow of the American College of Cardiology, Society of Coronary Angiography and Interventions, American College of Physicians and American College of Chest Physicians. He also is a reviewer and editorial member of several medical journals and has three patents.

He is a member of numerous professional organizations, including the American College of Physicians, American Medical Association, American Heart Association, American College of Cardiology, and Society of Coronary Angiography and Interventions.

Dr. Garcia serves as co-chair of cardiology department, and chairman of the Medical Economics Committee at Orlando Health and is a member of the Graduate Medical Education Committee and Institutional Review Board. Before joining Orlando Health, Dr. Garcia served as director of the Interventional Services and Catheterization Laboratory at Denver Health Medical Center and was an associate professor of medicine at the University of Colorado.

Dr. Garcia holds clinical appointments as associate professor for the University of Florida, UCF and FSU. His continued commitment to education is exemplified by his role as Orlando Health's Interventional Cardiology Fellowship Director, Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory Director at Orlando Regional Medical Center, and Program Director for the Cardiovascular Disease Fellowship at Orlando Health, and cardiology symposium director for both the Orlando Health Heart and Vascular Institute Cardiology Group and the Pan American Medical Association. Dr. Garcia also leads the morbidity and mortality conference at Orlando Health Regional Mecial Center.

Dr. Garcia has received many national, international and interventional awards for clinical excellence, leadership and research. Those include the Young Investigator Award, AMA Leadership Award, award from the Panamerican Medical Association and the Dominican Embassy, SCAI/GE Research Award, ACCF/BMS Award, Emerging Young Leadership Award from Cardiovascular Revascularization Therapies and a Clinical Research Fellows Conference Award. In 2012, he received the Denver 5280 Magazine Top Doctors Award and Outstanding Clinician Award at Denver Health Medical Center. He was named one of Orlando Magazine’s Top and Premier Doctors in 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024. Dr. Garcia won the 2018 Orlando Health Faculty Teaching Award in Medicine as voted by the residents in internal medicine. He also received the 2019, 2021, 2022, and 2023 Cardiology Outstanding Teaching Faculty awards and GOAT Award in 2024 as voted by the Orlando Health cardiology fellows and was the recipient of the 2024 Orlando Regional Medical Center Heartbeat Award for providing exceptional care to patients and fellow team members. Lastly, the Dominican Diplomatic Mission in Orlando honored Dr. Garcia in 2024 for his outstanding medical and philanthropic contributions to the Central Florida Latin community.

Because of his accolades and exemplary career, Dr. Garcia has been honored by the mayor of his hometown as a "Distinguished Son" of his beloved Santiago, Dominican Republic. Additionally, the President of the Dominican Republic has recently recognized Dr. Garcia as a “Distinguished Dominican” in 2025 for his contributions to the Dominican Community in the United States.