Dr. James Dove is the immediate past president of the American College of Cardiology (ACC). He also serves as a clinical professor of medicine in the division of cardiology at the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine. He is a founding partner of Prairie Cardiovascular Consultants, Ltd., a 47-member group of physicians serving central and southern Illinois.

In 1973, he began practice in Springfield, Illinois, and has since been affiliated with the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine. In addition to his clinical professorship, he served as chief of the division of cardiology from 1991 until 1999. The medical residents have honored him as an outstanding subspecialty teacher, and he has been actively involved in educational program development for students, residents, paramedical personnel, and primary care physicians. 

Dr. Dove has been actively involved in clinical research and served until 2005 on the board of directors of the Prairie Education and Research Cooperative, a practice-funded, non-profit research foundation. His interests have been in coronary artery disease, quality initiatives, and more recently, in the use of an electronic medical record to facilitate quality performance. This includes software that improves adherence to practice guidelines and performance measures at the point of care. He also has a longstanding interest in improving patient access to quality cardiovascular care and facilitating care delivery between subspecialty physicians and primary care physicians. 

Dr. Dove is a past governor for the downstate Illinois chapter of the American College of Physicians (ACP), and received the Outstanding Clinician Laureate Award from the ACP's Illinois chapter in 1992. In April 2002, he was awarded mastership in the ACP. He has also served on the Illinois chapter of the ACC's Board of Councilors since the beginning of the chapter and was elected president and governor of the chapter in 1997. Nationally, he has served on numerous committees, working groups, and task forces, including the ACC's Quality Strategic Directions Committee, Guidelines Applied to Practice, International Committee Work Group, Twenty-First Century Task Force, Board Effectiveness Task Force, and the Medical Informatics Committee. He was chair of the ACC's Board of Governors, secretary, chair of the Budget, Finance & Investment Committee, treasurer, and vice president. In 2008, he was awarded mastership in the ACC.

He has been a board member on the Health Level Seven, Inc. (HL7) Advisory Committee since 2006. He has served on the United Way Board of Central Illinois since 2005 and the Network Knowledge Board (public television station) since 2004. He received the John Paul Harris Fellowship Award for outstanding community achievement from the Springfield Rotary Club in December 2004.

Dr. Dove graduated from Wittenberg University in 1961 and from Case Western Reserve School of Medicine in Cleveland in 1965. He completed a residency in internal medicine and a fourth year as chief resident at Mount Sinai Hospital School of Medicine in New York City. He spent two years in public health service assigned to Washington, DC, at Georgetown University; Washington, DC VA Hospital; and the National Institutes of Health. His cardiology training was completed at the University of Rochester School of Medicine in New York.