Jack C. Askins, MD

Jack C. Askins, M.D. is an interventional cardiologist whose career began during the early innovation years of coronary and peripheral angioplasty.

Born and raised in Phoenix, he earned a BA in Chemistry from Arizona State University and his M.D. from Texas Tech University School of Medicine in 1974. During medical school he met his wife, Marilyn. After graduation they moved to Denver, where he completed an Internal Medicine residency and was honored by being selected Chief Resident. The couple then opened a busy internal medicine practice near Sun Valley, Idaho. Those three years were full and rewarding — long hours of primary care, the birth of their oldest child, and family ski trips — yet they also revealed his true passion was for cardiology.

Drawn to technology and innovation, Dr. Askins became fascinated in the late 1970s with the pioneering work of Swiss physician Andreas Gruentzig who performed the first coronary angioplasty in a human in 1977. Realizing his true calling, Dr. Askins and his wife closed the Idaho practice in 1981 and subsequently began a clinical and research cardiology fellowship at the University of Utah. His research centered on the use of thrombolytic agents for acute myocardial infarction during the foundational years when such therapies were evolving to become standard of care.

He then built a thriving invasive cardiology practice in Utah which he often describes as "interventional before intervention was cool," frequently combining angioplasty of acutely occluded coronary arteries with intracoronary thrombolytics in patients with acute myocardial infarction. The subsequent development of coronary stents and advanced pharmacologic agents dramatically expanded the safety and scope of interventional cardiology.

In 1991 the family, now with three children, returned to Texas to be near aging parents. Seeking a balanced lifestyle away from the "metro-mess," they settled in Wichita Falls. Over the following 35 years, Dr. Askins has demonstrated excellence in the three fundamental pillars required for quality medical practice: training, experience, and judgement.

He has always embraced innovation while remaining deeply committed to personalized patient care, physician autonomy, and the communities he serves. Today, he and his wife enjoy time with their 13 young grandchildren and a small farm that provides a welcome balance to a demanding but fulfilling medical career.