Gill Heart & Vascular Institute honors contributions of Dr. Mikel Smith and Annette Smith

The decades of service and profound impact of Dr. Mikel and Mrs. Annette Smith were recently celebrated at the UK Gill Heart & Vascular Institute.  Surrounded by their friends, colleagues and peers, the Smiths were honored for their hard work, dedication, and years of service at the unveiling of the ‘Mikel D. Smith, MD and the Annette C. Smith, RDCS Echocardiography Laboratory.’

Dr. Smith's Kentucky roots run deep. A 1977 graduate of the UK College of Medicine, Dr. Smith embarked upon a decades-long career at UK HealthCare that saw him promoted to Director of the Echo Lab in 1988, where he remained until retiring in 2022. Dr. Smith’s commitment to providing outstanding quality oversight, dedication to the well-being of sonographers,  and enthusiasm for education in echocardiography for over 30 years speak volumes of his character.

Equally impressive is Annette’s service to the Gill Heart &Vascular Institute. She joined the Echo Lab in 1985 and was appointed Operations Manager in 1992, serving in that role until retiring in 2019. 

Together, the Smiths helped the UK HealthCare Echo Lab at the Gill Heart & Vascular Institute become the first in Kentucky to earn accreditation from the Intersocietal Accreditation Commission, recognizing “quality echocardiographic diagnostic evaluations.”  The lab has since maintained continuous accreditation.

The words of Dr. John Kotter encapsulate the influence of Mikel and Annette Smith: “They set a standard for all of us to be caring good people. The Mikel and Annette Smith Echo Lab means all of us can keep being the good people that they are because we'll always have their influence in our Echo Lab—that’s always been their Echo Lab.”