Wellstar Center for Cardiovascular Care

Dr. Akshar Y. Patel is a board-certified physician in Interventional Cardiology, Cardiovascular Disease, Internal Medicine, Nuclear Cardiology and Cardiovascular Tomography. He specializes in coronary artery disease, chest pain syndromes, shortness of breath, coronary angiography, angioplasty, high-risk percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI), treatment and recovery from acute MIs (heart attacks), hypertensive heart disease, and critical care cardiology. Trained in cutting-edge cardiac procedures by experts from across the nation, Dr. Patel views all his patients as VIPs, making their concerns his top priority and ensuring they receive his undivided attention. He treats his patients like family and emphasizes communication as an integral part of the physician-patient relationship. 

A native of Puerto Rico, Dr. Ada Mercado received her undergraduate degree from InterAmerican University and attended medical school at Pedro Henríquez Ureña. She completed her internal medicine residency in the Mayagüez Medical Center and her cardiovascular disease fellowship at Ponce School of Medicine & Health Sciences St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital. Dr. Mercado then completed an echocardiography fellowship at Tulane and Louisiana State University in New Orleans, LA. She also completed nuclear cardiology training at Emory University in Atlanta.

Dr. Mercado is board-certified in cardiovascular disease. She is a member of the American College of Cardiology and American Echcoardiography Society. Her special interests include general cardiology, transthoracic and transesophageal echocardiogram, and nuclear cardiology.

She joined Wellstar in January 2011 from the Atlanta Heart Center where she was a founding physician in 2002.

Amol S. Bapat, MD, FACC, was born in Birmingham, Alabama. He attended the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, where he received his BA in Chemistry. He then proceeded to the University of Alabama School of Medicine in Birmingham, Alabama, and after receiving his MD, pursued his Internal Medicine Residency at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. He stayed at Baylor for his subspecialty training in Cardiovascular Disease and Interventional Cardiology. While at Baylor, he was the recipient of a NIH National Research Award Training Grant and his research involved platelet and thrombosis physiology. He was the first physician to work with the Larry King Cardiac Foundation (LKCF) and its partnership with Saint Joseph's Hospital. He was awarded the Physician Laureate Award by the LKCF in 2006.