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Frontera has assembled a carefully selected team of clinical experts, business advisors and physicians to fulfill their vision of providing the best in-office cardiopulmonary metabolic stress testing services available anywhere.
Donald C. Zavala, M.D., FACP,
FCCP- Medical Advisor
Dan Frawley- Business Advisor
Kyle Heffner- Clinical Specialist
Donald
C. Zavala, M.D., FACP, FCCP- Medical Advisor
Dr. Zavala serves as a Medical Advisor to Frontera.
He is a preeminent expert in the field of cardiopulmonary metabolic exercise
testing. Dr. Zavala graduated from the College of Wooster, Ohio. He received
his M.D. degree from the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine,
followed by an internship and 3-year residency in internal medicine at
the University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics, Iowa City, IA. He was
in private practice in El Centro, CA for 17 years, before returning to
the University of Iowa for a fellowship in the Division of Pulmonary Diseases.
After completing specialty training he was given an
academic appointment, and was made a Professor of Medicine and director
of the pulmonary diagnostic laboratories, including bronchoscopy, pulmonary
function, cardiopulmonary exercise testing, and pulmonary rehabilitation.
Additional duties included teaching rounds on general and pulmonary medicine
wards, lectures (medical conferences), and helping to staff the out-patient
lung clinic. His special clinical interest was in the field of exercise
physiology. He established the first metabolic exercise testing laboratory
at the University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics. Also he was a pioneer
in flexible fiberoptic bronchoscopy and gained world recognition in this
field. In September 1992, he was honored as the “Father of Fiberoptic
Bronchoscopy” at the 7th World Congress for Bronchology held at
the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN.
His research focused on four areas: (1) Cardiopulmonary
exercise testing. (2) Cardiopulmonary rehabilitation (2) Advancement of
techniques for lung biopsy and flexible fiberoptic bronchoscopy, and (4)
Nutritional assessment in critically ill patients.
He is a past president of the Iowa Chapter of the American
Society of Internal Medicine and past Iowa state governor of the American
College of Chest Physicians. While at the University of Iowa he was an
active member of the American Thoracic Society, American Lung Association,
American Federation for Clinical Research, American Broncho-Esophagological
Association, Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine, and Central
Society for Clinical Research. He published 65 articles in medical journals,
wrote a chapter in 7 medical books on pulmonary diagnostic procedures,
wrote three major medical textbooks and co-authored three more, one in
German and two in Spanish.* In addition, Dr. Zavala served as visiting
professor and gave over 250 major presentations in USA, Canada, Mexico,
Brazil, Argentina, England, France, Germany, Spain, Sweden, Egypt, New
Zealand, Australia, Japan, and Iceland.
In 1992, Dr. Zavala retired as a full Professor of Medicine
at the University of Iowa College of Medicine and moved to St. Simons
Island, Georgia, where he and his wife, Julie, live on the Hampton Plantation.
He semi-retired in 1999. Although he no longer is involved in patient
care, he continues to give CME seminars on Metabolic Cardiopulmonary Exercise
Testing using gas exchange.
Note: Dr. Zavala
was recently notified by the University of Iowa that a Chair is being
created in his name to honor his work at the College of Medicine.
Dan Frawley- Business
Advisor
Dan has served as a Senior Advisor to Frontera
Strategies since late 2001. Dan is the current CEO of Icononculture. Formerly
CEO of Techies.com from 1998 to 2001, he raised over $100M in venture
capital and grew the company from less than $1M in sales to over $30M
in two years. Techies.com filed an S-1 to become a public company but
withdrew in the spring of 2000 due to poor market conditions. From August
1996 to July 1998, Dan was a senior vice president of Channel Strategies
at Gartner Group where he was responsible for helping to re-architect
the distribution strategy for Gartner. In 1989, Dan was a founder and
President of J3 Learning Corporation, a technology based computer training
developer / marketer based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He remained there
until the corporation was sold to the Gartner Group in 1996. Dan also
served for seven years as an aircraft carrier fighter pilot in the US
Navy, flying active missions throughout the Middle East and Africa. Dan
is a graduate of the Harvard Business School and the U.S. Naval Academy.
Kyle Heffner- Clinical Specialist
Kyle is an exercise physiologist, allied health
professional, software designer and internationally experienced distance
runner. He is a Fellow with the American Association of Cardiovascular
and Pulmonary Rehabilitation and is certified as a Program Director TM
with the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM). Kyle has specialized
in a variety of areas, including therapeutic techniques in cardiovascular
and musculoskeletal health, exercise physiology, natural health remedies,
and alternative medicine therapies. In addition, he has over 16 years
of experience in designing software, software specifications for exercise
tracking systems, and health-related applications. Having run more than
55,000 miles over the last 38 years, he has extensive personal experience
in physical conditioning, injury prevention, and the effects of altitude
and hot weather training for endurance athletes, as well as academic expertise
in those areas. He served two years as a conditioning consultant to the
Dallas Cowboys, and has coached many individual athletes. Most recently,
Kyle directed cardiac rehabilitation and served as the clinical exercise
physiologist for a regional medical center in North Texas. |
