Vivek Rao is a Canadian cardiac surgeon and researcher. [1] [2] [3] He was the youngest faculty member ever to join the University of Toronto cardiac surgery division, and, later, the second youngest chief of cardiac surgery ever appointed at the University Health Network Division of Cardiac Surgery. [1]
After attending Upper Canada College, Rao studied medicine at Queen's University at Kingston. He completed his medical and surgical training at the University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine, including PhD training (’94-97), working under the supervision of Richard D. Weisel in the Surgical Scientist Training Program. [4] He completed a fellowship in cardiac transplantation and mechanical circulatory support at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital. [4]
Rao is the Munk Chair in Advanced Cardiac Therapeutics at the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre, Toronto General Hospital, and Senior Scientist in the Division of Experimental Therapeutics at the Toronto General Research Institute. [4]
Rao is credited with building Canada's largest Advanced Heart Failure Program. [1] He was also the first cardiovascular surgeon in Canada to implant HeartMate, a mechanical heart technology he imported from his experience under Dr. Mehmet Oz of the "Dr. Oz Show" in New York. [1]
He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. [4]
Rao was named to Canada's Top 40 Under 40. [5]
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.
The Temerty Faculty of Medicine is the medical school of the University of Toronto. Founded in 1843, the faculty is based in Downtown Toronto and is one of Canada's oldest institutions of medical studies, being known for the discovery of insulin, stem cells and the site of the first single and double lung transplants in the world.
The University of Ottawa Heart Institute (UOHI) (French: Institut de cardiologie de l'Université d'Ottawa ) is Canada's largest cardiovascular health centre. It is located in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It began as a department in The Ottawa Hospital, and since has evolved into a complete cardiac centre, encompassing prevention, diagnosis, treatment, rehabilitation, research, and education.
The Toronto General Hospital (TGH) is a major teaching hospital in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and the flagship campus of University Health Network (UHN). It is located in the Discovery District of Downtown Toronto along University Avenue's Hospital Row; it is directly north of The Hospital for Sick Children, across Gerrard Street West, and east of Princess Margaret Cancer Centre and Mount Sinai Hospital. The hospital serves as a teaching hospital for the University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine. In 2019, the hospital was ranked first for research in Canada by Research Infosource for the ninth consecutive year.
Sir Magdi Habib Yacoub is an Egyptian-British retired professor of cardiothoracic surgery at Imperial College London, best known for his early work in repairing heart valves with surgeon Donald Ross, adapting the Ross procedure, where the diseased aortic valve is replaced with the person's own pulmonary valve, devising the arterial switch operation (ASO) in transposition of the great arteries, and establishing the heart transplantation centre at Harefield Hospital in 1980 with a heart transplant for Derrick Morris, who at the time of his death was Europe's longest-surviving heart transplant recipient. Yacoub subsequently performed the UK's first combined heart and lung transplant in 1983.
Tirone Esperidiao David, is a Brazilian-born Canadian cardiac surgeon and professor of surgery at the University of Toronto. He is an attending cardiac surgeon at the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre, Toronto General Hospital. He is known for his 2007 development of a valve sparing aortic root replacement procedure to preserve the aortic valve in patients with aortic root aneurysms such as in Marfan syndrome; it is now known as the "David Operation".
Pierre 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 1950s. He performed the first successful heart transplantation in Canada at the Montreal Heart Institute in May 1968.
William S. Pierce is an American cardiothoracic surgeon and chemical engineer who led development of the first pneumatic heart assist pump. The Pierce-Donachy Ventricular Assist Device, also known as the Penn State Assist Pump, was designated an International Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in 1990.
In medicine, a surgeon is a medical doctor who performs surgery. Even though there are different traditions in different times and places, a modern surgeon is a licensed physician and 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.
Adrian Kantrowitz was an American cardiac surgeon whose team performed the world's second heart transplant attempt at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York on December 6, 1967. The infant lived for only six hours. At a press conference afterwards, Kantrowitz emphasized that he considered the operation to have been a failure.
The Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry at University of Alberta is located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Established in 1913, it is one of the oldest medical schools in Western Canada and is composed of 21 departments, two stand-alone divisions, 9 research groups, and 24 research centers and institutes. Educational, clinical and research activities are conducted in 29 buildings on or near the University of Alberta north campus.
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 L. Cox is an American cardiothoracic surgeon and medical innovator best known for the development of the Cox maze procedure for treatment of atrial fibrillation in 1987.
Peter Allen was a Canadian surgeon who played a leading role in improving cardiac surgery techniques. Along with Dr. Philip Ashmore, Dr. W.G. (Bill) Trapp and Dr. Ross Robertson, he performed the first Open Heart Surgery in British Columbia on 29 October 1957 at Vancouver General Hospital, by closing an Atrial Septal Defect (ASD) in 9 year old John Evans, using Cardiopulmonary Bypass (CPB).
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).
Shaf Keshavjee is a Canadian surgeon and the current Surgeon-in-Chief at University Health Network in Toronto, the Director of the Toronto Lung Transplant Program, as well as a clinical scientist and professor with the University of Toronto.
Michael Fehlings is a Canadian neurosurgeon based at Toronto Western Hospital in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Dr. Fehlings specializes in complex spine surgery with a special interest in traumatic and non-traumatic spinal cord injury and spine oncology. He mainly focuses on preclinical and clinical translational research related to enhancing repair and regeneration of the injured central nervous system. He holds many positions, including Professor of Neurosurgery at the University of Toronto, Vice Chair Research at the University of Toronto, Robert Campeau Foundation/Dr. C.H. Tator Chair in Brain and Spinal Cord Research at UHN, Scientist at the McEwen Centre for Regenerative Medicine, McLaughlin Scholar in Molecular Medicine, and Co-Director of the University of Toronto Spine Program. He is the past inaugural Director of the University of Toronto Neuroscience Program, and was the previous Medical Director at Toronto Western Hospital. Dr. Fehlings is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons and a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Canada.
Bernard Langer was a Canadian surgeon and educator. In 2015, he was inducted into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame.
Heather Joan Ross is professor of medicine at the University of Toronto in Ontario, Canada. Ross is a scientific lead for the Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research, the director of the Ted Rogers Centre of Excellence in Heart Function and Director of the Cardiac Transplant Program at Toronto General Hospital. She has been the president of the Canadian Cardiovascular Society and the Canadian Society of Transplantation.