Craig Walker, MD

Dr. Walker’s passion for improving cardiovascular healthcare has resulted in a tireless pursuit of education and innovation, and it has improved patient outcomes in Louisiana and beyond.

Dr. Craig Michael Walker is a native of Bourg, Louisiana. He attended Nicholls State University on academic scholarship and completed a four-year pre-medical curriculum in two years. He was also awarded the Pre-medicine Award. He subsequently attended LSU Medical School in New Orleans, earning his doctorate in medicine in 1977. Dr. Walker completed a three-year internal medicine residency where he served as chief medical resident. He completed a cardiology fellowship at Ochsner Foundation Hospital, where he was one of the first interventional fellows in the U.S. Dr. Walker subsequently performed a research fellowship at Harvard’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.

Dr. Walker is board certified in internal medicine, cardiovascular disease, and interventional cardiology. He is a fellow of the American College of Cardiology, the American College of Physicians, the American Society of Cardiovascular Interventionists, the International College of Angiology, the Society for Cardiac Angiography and Interventions, the American College of Chest Physicians and the Council on Clinical Cardiology.

In 1983, Dr. Walker returned to Houma to pursue his life’s goal of establishing a world-class cardiovascular program in South Louisiana. Dr. Walker’s mission led him to create Houma Heart Clinic, which quickly expanded to multiple communities in Louisiana, prompting a name change to Cardiovascular Institute of the South. The practice is now internally-esteemed with more than 20 clinics in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Illinois. Over the past 30 years, CIS has participated in groundbreaking research recognized across the world. Dr. Walker has served as the principal investigator in the initial stent, atherectomy, and drug-coated balloon trials. He is known as a pioneer in interventional cardiology, particularly in peripheral vascular interventions, for which his techniques and inventions have been cited internationally as transformative. He has also trained more than 1,500 physicians in advanced peripheral interventional techniques.

Additionally, Dr. Walker founded New Cardiovascular Horizons (NCVH), which provides multidisciplinary-accredited conferences to advance the field of cardiovascular care. Dr. Walker serves as chairman for the annual conference as well as the 20+ regional meetings throughout the year. NCVH has become one of the largest and most prestigious peripheral vascular conferences in the world.

Dr. Walker has received numerous academic and professional awards. He was the first native Louisianian to be chosen as one of “Ten Outstanding Young Americans” by the Jaycees. He was awarded the “Health Care Hero Award” by New Orleans City Business, the James J. Buquet Jr. Award by the Terrebonne Foundation of Academic Excellence, and an honorary doctorate of nursing from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, to name a few. He was one of the initial four inductees into the Nicholls State University Hall of Fame.