Dr. Mary Durando is a south Floridian who grew up around thoroughbred racehorses on a farm that had lay-ups and broke some yearlings which prompted her interest in equine veterinary medicine. After graduation from the University of Georgia, she completed a six-month internship in internal medicine at Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital. She then completed a residency in large animal internal medicine at the University of Florida.

Following her residency, she attended graduate school at the Medical University of South Carolina, where she received a PhD in Physiology in the field of endotoxin research. She completed a two-year fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania’s New Bolton Center in the large animal cardiology/ultrasound/sports medicine section; this prompted a passion for both equine cardiology and sports medicine.

Dr. Durando then relocated to California for three years to work at the University of California, Davis, School of Veterinary Medicine as a clinical lecturer in the equine medicine and ultrasound departments before returning to the University of Pennsylvania’s treadmill facility to focus on exercise physiology and cardiopulmonary research. She started her own mobile equine medicine and sports medicine referral business, Equine Sports Medicine Consultants, with her partner, Dr. Ric Birks, in the southern Pennsylvania area in 2010.

Dr. Durando has been published in numerous peer reviewed journals, book chapters and has presented at the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine annual conferences, International Congress of Equine Exercise physiology (ICEEP) meetings and various other regional, national and international continuing education seminars.

Dr. Durando’s special interests include cardiology, respiratory disorders, exercise physiology and how the disorders of the cardiopulmonary system relate to poor performance. She also has a strong interest in neonatology and sepsis/endotoxemia.