My name is Michael Ayers, and I'm a cardiologist at UVA Health. Within cardiology, I have two realms that I sort of operate in. The first is in imaging. Reading of the stress tests and the echocardiograms at UVA. The second is the more clinical side, and on outpatient I see a couple different groups of patients. Patients with something called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, which is a thick heart disease that's inherited. The second group of patients that I see is in preventative cardiology. So these are patients with either a strong family history or a disease that predisposes them, or puts them at risk for heart conditions in the future. I think from a young age, I really wanted to have a job where I felt like I was contributing in some tangible way to society. My grandfather, who was a very big influence in my upbringing, always talked about serving your fellow man. And then my mother was a nurse. So between the two of them, I think I found my way to medicine pretty naturally. I think what patients can expect is that we're going to share our time together and we're going to slow things down and we're going to really, especially when I meet patients for the first time, go through their story. I want to get to know what your priorities are, what your worries are, and what your expectations are. I love figuring out what it is that a patient values in his or her life, and then helping design a treatment plan that aligns with that value.