Abbas Ardehali

Last updated

Abbas Ardehali is an Iranian-American cardiothoracic surgeon at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. Dr. Ardehali holds the William E. Connor Endowed Chair in Cardiothoracic Transplantation at UCLA. He is the Director of UCLA's Heart, Lung, and Heart-Lung Transplant programs, ranked by United Network Organ Sharing (UNOS) as the largest program in the United States.

Contents

He is a pioneer in the field of heart and lung transplantation, constantly pushing the boundaries of what is possible in organ transplantation. [1] Dr. Ardehali was the principal investigator behind technology that allows for the transportation of a breathing human heart or lung for an extended period of time. [2] In 2023, he gave a TED Talk on the miracle of organ donation and cutting-edge medical advances in machine perfusion — a portable platform that keeps organs alive outside of the body — that could help put time back on the patient's side. [3]

Early life and education

Abbas Ardehali was born in Tehran, Iran and moved to the United States at age sixteen. After completing school, he attended Rutgers University, where he received his Bachelors of Science Degree. [4] He then went on to complete his MD at Emory University School of Medicine in 1986. Originally pursuing a career in Cardiology, he completed his Internal Medicine internship (1986-1987) and residency (1987-1989) at the UC San Francisco School of Medicine. [4] He additionally completed 1 year of a Cardiology fellowship at the UC San Francisco School of Medicine in 1990 before changing career paths. [4]

Career

Ardehali completed his surgical internship (1990-1991), surgical residency (1991-1995), and thoracic surgical residency (1995-1997) at UCLA School of Medicine. [4]

Dr. Ardehali has been a faculty member at UCLA since 1997. He served as Chief of Cardiothoracic Surgery at West Los Angeles Veterans Hospital from 1998 to 2012. Now, Dr. Ardehali serves as the surgical director of UCLA's Heart and Lung Transplant program. [1] He is the William E. Connor Chair in Cardiothoracic Transplantation, and a Professor of Surgery and Medicine at UCLA School of Medicine, Division of Cardiothoracic surgery. The program has been one of the largest lung transplant programs on the west coast. [5]

Dr. Ardehali was involved in developing technology that allows for transporting a breathing human heart or lung for an extended period of time and was the first surgeon in the United States to perform a 'breathing lung' transplant in 2011. [5]

He has served as a volunteer on several committees for UNOS and several scientific organizations, with leadership positions in the International Society of Heart and Lung Transplantation, American Society of Transplant Surgeons, American Association of Thoracic Surgery, and Society of Thoracic Surgeons.

Ardehali has been interviewed by ABC News, the Associated Press, CNN, Fox News, NBC News, CBS News, "The Doctor's Show," and Al Jazeera America, and a 2023 TED talk on "Future of Organ Transplantation.” He has been invited to lecture 100+ times, and he has been the recipient of Ellis Island Medal of Honor in 2017.

Awards

Personal life

He and his wife live with their two daughters in Los Angeles, California. Abbas Ardehali served as a Trustee of the Brentwood School from 2013-2015.

Selected publications

Dr. Abbas Ardehali has authored numerous book chapters, published more than 180+ peer-reviewed publications and 350+ abstracts, and currently holds numerous patents that are issued or filed.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William DeVries</span> American physician

William Castle DeVries is an American cardiothoracic surgeon, mainly known for the first transplant of a TAH using the Jarvik-7 model.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cardiothoracic surgery</span> Medical specialty involved in surgical treatment of organs inside the thorax

Cardiothoracic surgery is the field of medicine involved in surgical treatment of organs inside the thoracic cavity — generally treatment of conditions of the heart, lungs, and other pleural or mediastinal structures.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pediatric surgery</span> Medical subspecialty of surgery performed by pediatrics

Pediatric surgery is a subspecialty of surgery involving the surgery of fetuses, infants, children, adolescents, and young adults.

Bruce A. Reitz is an American cardiothoracic surgeon, best known for leading the first combined heart-lung transplantation in 1981 with pioneer heart transplant surgeon Norman Shumway. He obtained an undergraduate degree at Stanford University a medical degree at Yale Medical School and completed an internship at Johns Hopkins Hospital (1971) and residencies and fellowships at Stanford University Hospital the National Institutes of Health (1974). He joined the surgical faculty at Stanford University (1978) then became chief of cardiac surgery at Johns Hopkins University (1982–92) and Chairman of the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Stanford (1992–2005). In 1995 he conducted another pioneering operation: the first Heartport procedure, using a device that allows minimally invasive coronary bypass and valve operations. Reitz also played a major role in the resident education program at Stanford, which he reorganized and maintained.

Pierre Rene Grondin, was a Canadian cardiac surgeon who was one of the first doctors to perform a successful heart transplant. He brought many innovations to the Montreal Heart Institute after his post-graduate training with pioneers Michael DeBakey and Denton Cooley in Houston, Texas. He was one of a select few heart surgeons worldwide who participated in the development of open-heart surgery using the heart-lung machine in the early 1960s. He performed the first successful heart transplantation in Canada at the Montreal Heart Institute in May 1968.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Surgeon</span> Physician with surgical specialty

In medicine, a surgeon is a medical doctor who performs surgery. Although there are different traditions in different times and places, a modern surgeon is also a licensed physician or received the same medical training as physicians before specializing in surgery.

Cardiothoracic anesthesiology is a subspeciality of the medical practice of anesthesiology, devoted to the preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative care of adult and pediatric patients undergoing cardiothoracic surgery and related invasive procedures.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Randall B. Griepp</span> American cardiothoracic surgeon (1940–2022)

Randall Bertram Griepp was an American cardiothoracic surgeon who collaborated with Norman Shumway in the development of the first successful heart transplant procedures in the U.S. He had an international reputation for contributions to the surgical treatment of aortic aneurysms and aortic dissection and in heart and lung transplantations. He received nearly $8 million in grants from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert E. Michler</span>

Robert E. Michler is an American heart surgeon specializing in heart surgery, aortic and mitral valve repair, coronary artery bypass surgery, aneurysm surgery, and management of the failing heart. In 2017, Michler received the Vladimir Borakovsky Prize in Moscow from the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation for “his personal contributions to the development of cardiovascular surgery”.

Norman Edward Shumway was a pioneer of heart surgery at Stanford University. He was the 67th president of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery and the first to perform an adult human to human heart transplantation in the United States.

James K. Kirklin is an American cardiac surgeon who has made significant scientific and surgical contributions in the fields of heart transplantation and mechanical circulatory support devices to assist the pumping action of the heart. He was formerly Professor of Surgery (1987-2022), Director of the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery (2006-2016), Director of the James and John Kirklin Institute for Research in Surgical Outcomes (KIRSO) (2016–2022), and Co-Director of Comprehensive Cardiovascular Center (2011-2017) at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). While at UAB, he held the UAB Cardiovascular Research Chair (1998-2006), the John Kirklin Chair of Cardiovascular Surgery (2006-2017), and the James Kirklin Chair of Cardiothoracic Surgery (2017-2022).

Dr R Ravi Kumar is an Indian heart surgeon, and a pioneer in robot-assisted heart surgery.

Margaret Allen is an American cardiothoracic surgeon and an academic at the Benaroya Research Institute. She was the first woman to perform a heart transplant and is a former president of the United Network for Organ Sharing.

David John Sugarbaker was an American physician who was chief of the division of general thoracic surgery and the director of the Baylor College of Medicine Lung Institute at CHI St. Luke's Health–Baylor St. Luke's Medical Center in Houston, Texas. He was an internationally recognized thoracic surgeon specializing in the treatment of mesothelioma, the surgical management of malignant pleural mesothelioma, and treatment of complex thoracic cancers.

Rosalyn P. Scott is an American thoracic surgeon known for her work in education and for being the first African-American woman to become a thoracic surgeon.

Robert Samuel Decosta Higgins MD, MSHA is an American surgeon working with heart–lung transplants. He is president, Brigham and Women's Hospital; Executive Vice President, Mass General Brigham.

Gerald Buckberg was an American surgeon. His research initially centered in the area of myocardial protection and led to the introduction of blood cardioplegia, which is currently used by over 85% of surgeons in the United States and 75% of surgeons worldwide for adult and pediatric heart operations. He was a member of multiple surgical societies, including the American Association for Thoracic Surgery, American Surgical Association, and the Society of Thoracic Surgeons. He was Professor of Surgery at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.

Philip Caves (1940–1978) was a Northern Irish cardiothoracic surgeon. In 1972, while at Stanford University, he pioneered the use of the bioptome and transvenous endomyocardial biopsy in the early diagnosis of heart transplant rejection. It was considered the most significant advance in antirejection therapy of the time. Awarded the British American Research Fellowship in 1971, Caves worked with pioneering cardiothoracic surgeon Norman Shumway at Stanford and became staff surgeon leading the transplant programme by 1973. A year later he went to Edinburgh as a senior lecturer in cardiac surgery, where he became particularly interested in pediatric cardiac surgery.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stuart W. Jamieson</span> British surgeon

Stuart William Jamieson is a British cardiothoracic surgeon, specialising in pulmonary thromboendarterectomy (PTE), a surgical procedure performed to remove organized clotted blood (thrombus) from pulmonary arteries in people with chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH).

Alexander R. Mărmureanu is a Romanian-born American academic.

References

  1. 1 2 Albin, Amy. "Dr. Ardehali is awarded 2017 Ellis Island Medal of Honor". UCLA Newsroom. Retrieved 2017-06-11.
  2. Gropman, Adam (May 19, 2011), "Abbas Ardehali: L.A. Transplant", LA Weekly , retrieved June 11, 2017
  3. Ardehali, Abbas (2024-03-15), The miracle of organ donation — and a breakthrough for the future , retrieved 2024-03-17
  4. 1 2 3 4 "Abbas Ardehali, MD : Surgery, Cardiac - Los Angeles, California". www.uclahealth.org. Retrieved 2017-06-11.
  5. 1 2 Albin, Amy. "UCLA performs first 'breathing lung' transplant in United States". UCLA Newsroom. Archived from the original on 2016-01-06. Retrieved 2017-06-11.