Prior Chairs, Leadership, and Trainees
Stanford Department Chairs
2014 – Current
Joseph Woo, MD
Chair & Norman E. Shumway Professor and, by courtesy, of Bioengineering
2005 – 2012
Robert C. Robbins, MD
Thelma and Henry Doelger Professor of Cardiovascular Surgery II (2009 – 2012)
Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery (2005 – 2012)
1974 – 1993
Norman E. Shumway Jr., MD, PhD
Founder of Stanford Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery and First Chair
A Stanford Legacy of Leadership
Elias Samuel Cooper, MD
Elias Samuel Cooper founded the first medical school in the western U.S., which underwent various changes and reorganization to eventually become the Stanford School of Medicine.
Leo Eloesser, MD
Leo Eloesser joined the Stanford School of Medicine faculty in 1914 and led the Stanford surgical service at the San Francisco General Hospital.
Norman E. Shumway Jr., MD, PhD
Norman E. Shumway was the interim Chief of the Division of Cardiovascular Surgery at the new Palo Alto Stanford Hospital in 1959. He performed the first successful heart transplantation in the U.S. in1968. He later founded the Stanford Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery in 1974.
Edward B. Stinson, MD
Edward B. Stinson assisted Norman Shumway in performing the first successful adult heart transplant procedure in the U.S. in 1968. He joined the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery faculty in 1969 and served as Director of Cardiac Transplantation at the Stanford School of Medicine.
Pat O’Daily, MD
Pat O’Daily authored a seminal paper on the management of acute aortic dissections, which established the widely used Stanford classification system for aortic dissection.
Lawrence H. Cohn, MD
Lawrence H. Cohn received his MD from Stanford SoM in 1962 and trained under Norman Shumway. In 1971, Cohn began a long and successful career as a surgeon at the Brigham and Women's Hospital and educator as a professor of surgery at Harvard.
James B.D. Mark, MD
James B.D. Mark is the Johnson and Johnson Professor Emeritus of Surgery at Stanford School of Medicine. He served as as the founding Chief of the Division of Thoracic Surgery in the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery from 1972 to 1997.
D. Craig Miller, MD
D. Craig Miller is the Thelma and Henry Doelger Professor Emeritus of Cardiovascular Surgery at Stanford School of Medicine from 1978 to 2021.
Bruce A. Reitz, MD
Bruce A. Reitz is the former Chairman and the Norman E. Shumway Professor in the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Stanford School of Medicine. He and Norman Shumway performed the world's first successful heart-lung transplant in 1981.
R. Scott Mitchell, MD
R. Scott Mitchell is the Professor Emeritus of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Stanford School of Medicine from 1983 to 2015.
Randall Griepp, MD
Randall Griepp performed his first heart transplant on January 1, 1970, and for many years that patient was the longest heart transplant survivor. Griepp published a notable technique for total arch replacement using deep hypothermic circulatory arrest.
Philip E. Oyer, MD, PhD
Philip E. Oyer is the Roy B. Cohn-Theodore A. Falasco Professor Emeritus of CT Surgery at the Stanford SoM. Oyer co-developed and implanted the first mechanical ventricular assist device as a successful bridge-to-transplant in a patient at Stanford in 1984.
Vaughn Starnes, MD
Vaughn Starnes was the director of Stanford's heart-lung transplantation program from 1989 to 1992.
John Stevens, MD
John Stevens co-developed and commercialized the first specialized platform to facilitate minimally invasive heart surgery, and in 1991, set up Stanford Surgical Technologies, which later became "The Heartport System."
Michael Dake, MD
D. Craig Miller, R. Scott Mitchell, and Michael Dake implanted the first aortic endograft in the U.S. in 1992
Frank Hanley, MD
Frank Hanley is the Lawrence Crowley, M.D., Endowed Professor of Child Health and Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Stanford School of Medicine. He leds the Pediatric Cardiac Surgery Division (2001-present).
Robert C. Robbins, MD
Robert C. Robbins served as the Chair of the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery and Director of the Stanford Cardiovascular Institute from 2005 to 2012.
Joseph Shrager, MD
Joseph Shrager is Professor and Chief of the Division of Thoracic Surgery in the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Stanford School of Medicine (2008 – present).
Michael Fischbein, MD, PhD
Michael Fischbein and Robert Robbins created and implemented the nation’s first formal integrated six-year cardiothoracic surgery residency in 2008.
Y. Joseph Woo, MD
Y. Joseph Woo is the Norman E. Shumway Professor and Chair of the Department of CT Surgery and Associate Director of the Stanford Cardiovascular Institute. Dr. Woo is also Professor, by courtesy, of Bioengineering at the Stanford School of Engineering.
Distinguished Trainees of Stanford Cardiothoracic Surgery
Listings include graduation year and post-Stanford careers
Richard R. Lower (1961)
Chief, Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Medical College of Virginia
Pat O. Daily (1969)
Chief, Cardiac Surgery, University of California, San Diego
Randall B. Griepp (1972)
Chief, Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Mount Sinai School of Medicine
William Brody* (1975)
President, Johns Hopkins University
William A. Baumgartner (1978)
Chief, Div of CT Surgery, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
John Wallwork (1981)
Chief, Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Cambridge University SoM
Vaughn A. Starnes (1986)
Chair, Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Univ of Southern CA
Patrick McCarthy (1990)
Chief, Division of Cardiac Surgery, Northwestern University
Hermann Reichenspurner (1995)
Chair, Dept of CV Surgery, University of Hamburg
Joseph Schmoker (1998)
Chief, Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, University of Vermont
Francois Dagenais (2000)
Chief, Division of Cardiac Surgery, Universite Laval
Vincent Dor (1967)
Chair, Cardiothoracic Center of Monaco
Thomas Fogarty (1970)
Professor, Stanford University
Founder, Fogarty Institute for Innovation
Philip E. Oyer (1974)
Professor, Department of CT Surgery, Stanford School of Medicine
Bruce A. Reitz (1976)
Chair, Department of CT Surgery, Stanford University School of Medicine
Donald C. Watson (1979)
Chief, Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, University of Tennessee SoM
R. Scott Mitchell (1983)
Professor, Department of CT Surgery, Stanford School of Medicine
William H. Frist (1986)
Former United States Senator, Tennessee
Robert Robbins (1992)
Chair, Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Stanford School of Medicine
James Fann (1996)
Professor, Stanford University
Board of Directors, ABTS
Abe DeAnda (2000)
Chief, Div of CT Surgery, Univ of Texas Medical, Branch at Galveston
David Yuh (2001)
Chief, Section of Cardiac Surgery, Yale University
Edward B. Stinson (1968)
Professor, CT Surgery; Director, Cardiac Transplantation, Stanford School of Medicine
Lawrence H. Cohn (1971)
Chief, Division of CT Surgery, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard SoM
Jack G. Copeland (1975)
Chief, Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, University of Arizona SoM
D. Craig Miller (1977)
Professor, Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Stanford School of Medicine
Stuart W. Jamieson (1980)
Chief, Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Univ of California San Diego SoM
John C. Baldwin (1983)
Dean, Dartmouth University School of Medicine
Jeffrey Rich (1990)
Director, Ctr for Medicare Mgmt, CMS, U.S. Dept of Health and Human Services
Thomas Burdon (1992)
Professor, Stanford University
Chief of Surgery, Palo Alto, VAMC
Marc Moon (1998)
Chief, Section of Cardiac Surgery, Washington University
John Ikonomidis (2000)
Chief, Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Medical University of South Carolina
* Dr. Brody began his postgraduate training and completed several years in cardiovascular surgery with Dr Shumway and completed a residency in radiology at Stanford.
Reference Citations
One Hundred Years of History at Stanford University: Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery. Seminars in thoracic and cardiovascular surgery Woo, Y. J., Reitz, B. A.2015; 27 (4): 388-397
The Stanford experience of heart transplantation over five decades. European heart journal Zhu, Y., Lingala, B., Baiocchi, M., Toro Arana, V., Williams, K. M., Shudo, Y., Oyer, P. E., Woo, Y. J.2021