(March 30, 2015) Cardiologist Francis M. Weld, MD, will open a new clinic at Nantucket Cottage Hospital in April that will provide Nantucket residents with even greater access to cardiology services without having to leave the island.

Dr. Weld, an island visitor since 1982 and a year-round Nantucket resident since 2010, will initially offer cardiology consults for islanders with heart disease and other cardiac conditions, and will see patients at Nantucket Cottage Hospital on the second, third, and fourth Wednesdays each month.

Trained at the New York Hospital – Cornell University Medical Center and Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York City, Dr. Weld specializes in coronary artery disease, arrhythmias, hypertension, electrocardiography, echocardiography, and stress testing. Over several decades as a cardiologist in New York, Dr. Weld has carried the results of basic and clinical research in cardiovascular disease to the bedside of patients.

“I’m very happy to be opening a practice here,” Dr. Weld said. “Half of all disease is cardiovascular, so I believe this clinic will be an important supplement to the excellent medical care already available to island residents at the hospital.”

Dr. Weld is among Nantucket Cottage Hospital’s 34 specialty physicians offering clinics in 24 sub-specialties including neurology, dermatology, podiatry, endocrinology and pediatrics. He joins two existing members of the NCH cardiovascular medicine team – Dr. Joseph Garasic, the medical director of MGH’s cardiac access unit, and Dr. Richard Zelman, a specialist in interventional cardiology at Cape Cod Hospital – who currently see island patients on a monthly basis.

“Nantucket Cottage Hospital and the island community are lucky to have a physician with the talent and impressive background of Dr. Weld offering his services here on the island,” said Dr. Margot Hartmann, President and CEO of Nantucket Cottage Hospital. “We want to bring the best medical expertise available to Nantucket to benefit our patients and partnering with Dr. Weld is another big milestone in that effort.”

Dr. Weld will begin seeing patients at NCH on April 8, 2015, and will be available through referral by patients’ primary care providers. For more information, contact Penny Starr, NCH specialty physician services scheduling coordinator, at 508-825-8377.