Dr. Nils Johnson, MD

Dr. Nils Johnson grew up in Edmonton, Houston and Tulsa due to his father’s career in the oil industry. After becoming an Eagle Scout and a violinist in the all-state orchestra in high school, he was an exchange student for a year in Witzenhausen, Germany. He returned home to North America, where he completed his undergraduate degree in physics and computing at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver before completing medical school at Columbia University in Manhattan. He completed his internal medicine residency as well as fellowships in cardiology and interventional cardiology at Northwestern University in Chicago, where he also earned a Master of Science degree in epidemiology and biostatistics.

Dr. Johnson is a tenured Professor of Medicine, holds the Weatherhead Distinguished Chair of Heart Disease and was honored by the Catherine S. Tsai, MD Endowment. Clinically, Dr. Johnson cares for patients in the cardiac care and hospital units, practices interventional cardiology in the catheterization laboratory, interprets SPECT and PET perfusion images and sees outpatients in clinic.

His clinical interests span all of cardiology with a special focus on using pressure and flow measurements to clarify the diagnosis and select optimal treatment. His research with his mentor, Dr. K. Lance Gould, started in 1999 and focuses on clinical coronary physiology, from non-invasive perfusion imaging to intracoronary hemodynamics. During the 2015-16 academic year, he spent a sabbatical emphasizing invasive coronary physiology with Dr. Nico Pijls at the Catharina Hospital in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. He has lectured in 20 countries across four continents and has contributed to over 200 publications.

Board certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) in cardiovascular disease and interventional cardiology, Dr. Johnson also has subspecialty credentials in nuclear cardiology. Additionally, he is a fellow of the American College of Cardiology (FACC), European Society of Cardiology (FESC), and American Society of Nuclear Cardiology (FASNC). He has been inducted into UTHealth Houston’s Academy of Master Educators as a result of his numerous teaching awards and serving as the course director for the cardiovascular module during first year of medical school.