Valley Health System Opens The Knispel Center for Comprehensive Cardiomyopathy Care
PARAMUS, NJ, October 8, 2025 – Valley Health System is excited to announce the opening of The Knispel Center for Comprehensive Cardiomyopathy Care, a critical resource that brings together cardiac specialists to meet the healthcare needs of patients diagnosed with cardiomyopathy or congestive heart failure.
Cardiomyopathy is a disease of the heart muscle that makes it harder for the heart to pump blood. Heart failure occurs when the heart can’t pump enough oxygen to meet the body’s needs. Heart failure and cardiomyopathy are closely connected, but they don’t always occur simultaneously. The Valley Heart and Vascular Institute recognizes the differences and the overlap between the conditions and brings together the expertise needed to treat both conditions.
The Knispel Center combines the skills of specialists in pulmonary hypertension, cardiac critical care, advanced heart failure, cardiac surgery, and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. This range of experience allows for the diagnosis and management of the full spectrum of these cardiac conditions using a collaborative, multidisciplinary care approach, paving the way for heart recovery.
“At The Knispel Center for Comprehensive Cardiomyopathy Care, our multidisciplinary team of subspecialists works together to treat cardiomyopathies and heart failure. The experience of our team allows us to diagnose and manage the full spectrum of these cardiac conditions to restore functional quality of life,” said Suneet Mittal, MD, Chair of the Cardiovascular Service Line for Valley Health System. “We are grateful for the generous support of Barry and Isabel Knispel, whose gift will have a significant impact on the patients we serve.”
Patients referred to the center have access to a wide array of advanced treatment options. These include advances in medical management; innovative device-based therapies such as cardiac contractility modulation, a device implant to help your heart pump blood; carotid baroreceptor stimulation, a technique that involves electrically stimulating the carotid baroreceptor, which are pressure points in the carotid arteries, to help reduce symptoms of heart failure; and – if needed – a left ventricular assist device, which is a mechanical pump surgically implanted within a severely weakened heart to meet the body’s demands and improve quality of life. Whatever a patient requires, Valley’s heart recovery team at the Knispel Center works together to develop a customized treatment plan that is tailored to the patient’s specific needs.
If you have been diagnosed with cardiomyopathy or heart failure, ask your cardiologist if The Knispel Center for Comprehensive Cardiomyopathy Care is right for you. For more information about heart care at Valley, please visit ValleyHealth.com/Heart.
Photo caption: Heart Recovery Team at The Knispel Center for Comprehensive Cardiomyopathy Care. From left to right: Samit Shah, MD, Medical Director, Mechanical Circulatory Support; Paul Burns, MD, Director, Heart Failure Surgery; Kariann Abbate, MD, Director, Center for Comprehensive Heart Failure Care; Dan Musat, MD, Director, Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Program; and Ashish Rai, MD, Director, Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension Program.
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