Patrons of his family’s former restaurant would probably never have guessed that the smiling young man carrying a stack of dishes would some day grow up to be a top doctor, but it’s those hard-earned values which have paid off handsomely for Antreas “Anto” Hindoyan, MD, who recently received the USC Choi Family Award for excellence in patient-centered care.
The prestigious award honors physicians, residents, nurses and staff for their unwavering commitment to compassionate patient care. Hindoyan, an interventional cardiologist, was chose from among a pool of more than 500 doctors in the Keck Medicine of USC family.
“This is very humbling,” said Hindoyan, who grew up in San Marino and graduated from Pasadena Polytechnic. “I feel so honored.”
Candidates for the award are nominated by a committee to begin the process. Colleagues said Hindoyan “represents the Keck Medicine name well by going above and beyond”; and that “his level of dedication to each patient is unmatched.”
Dr. Ray Matthews, chief of the division of cardiovascular medicine and professor of clinical medicine at the Keck School, said it isn’t uncommon for Hindoyan to give patients his personal cell phone number or walk patients across the medical campus to make sure they find their way.
“Dr. Hindoyan is a fierce advocate for his patients and never ceases to put their interests before his own,” Matthews said.
It’s an ethic he learned at Burger Continental, the popular eatery the family ran on Lake Avenue for more than 40 years.
“I worked at the restaurant from the 8th grade until my second year of medical school,” Hindoyan told The Tribune. “It was there I learned never to shy away from hard work. That is probably the most important trait one can have.”
Anto’s desire to become an interventional cardiologist was stirred at a very young age.
“My grandfather was at Huntington Hospital many times with heart issues and it had a profound effect on me,” he said. “That is why I do what I do.”
What Hindoyan does is perform angiograms, fix arteries, study valves and coordinate with heart surgeons. He sees patients on the main campus in Los Angeles as well as the Keck-USC Clinic on Fair Oaks Avenue in Pasadena.
Hindoyan attended Valentine Elementary School and Huntington Middle School before attending Poly, where he graduated in 2000. He finished his undergrad at Occidental College in 2004 and entered USC Medical School, graduating in 2008. He completed his internal medicine residency in 2011, a cardiology fellowship in 2014 and finally, his studies o f interventional cardiology in 2015.
“It’s a profession that is difficult, time-consuming ad requires a great deal of patience but at the end of the day, it puts a smile on my face,” Hindoyan said with a chuckle. “If I had to choose now, I would do it all over again.”
That the me of repetition is prominent in the Hindoyan Family. Anto’s brother, Kevo, is currently finishing up his orthopedic residency at USC and will soon be moving onto do a fellowship in spine surgery at the University of California, San Francisco. Sister Nareen is a pediatrician who is currently transitioning from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center to Huntington Memorial Hospital.
“To see your siblings work so hard and be so successful, that’s the biggest driver,” said Anto.
You can toss his parents into the mix.
“Both of my parents sacrificed so much,” he said of father Harry and mother Arpy. “All three of us are a direct reflection of their hard work.”
