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

2012 – 2013 (Interim)

Philip Oyer, MD, PhD

Roy B. Cohn-Theodore A. Falasco Professor, Emeritus

1993 – 2005

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.

Bio

Elias Samuel Cooper, a San Francisco surgeon, authored the “Report of an Operation to Remove a Foreign Body from Beneath the Heart,” published by the San Francisco Medico Chirurgical Association in 1857. The following year in 1858, Cooper founded the first medical school in the western United States, originally known as the Medical Department of the University of the Pacific. The medical school underwent various name changes - including naming after himself, the Cooper Medical College - moves, expansions, a “spin-off” that would later become University of California, San Francisco, and a reorganization to eventually become the Stanford School of Medicine in 1908.

Stanford University School of Medicine and the Predecessor Schools: An Historical Perspective - Part I. Background History & E.S. Cooper's Midwestern Years - Chapter 4. Elias Cooper & Medical Schools West of the Alleghenies

Stanford University Medical School

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.

Bio

Leo Eloesser was a pioneering thoracic surgeon who joined the newly reorganized Stanford School of Medicine faculty in 1914. He led the Stanford surgical service at the San Francisco General Hospital and became renowned for innovative therapies for empyema. A surgical procedure known as the Eloesser flap is named for him. He served as the 19th President of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery and as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Thoracic Surgery, the predecessor of the Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery

Portrait of Dr. Leo Eloesser and La Tortillera

Emile Holman, MD

Emile Holman served as the first Chairman of the Department of Surgery at Stanford School of Medicine from 1926 to 1955.

Bio

Emile Holman completed his undergraduate degree from Stanford School of Medicine in 1911 and graduated from Johns Hopkins Medical School in 1918. He served as the first Chairman of the Department of Surgery at Stanford School of Medicine from 1926 to 1955, where he established the surgical residency program and performed many of the extracardiac and closed heart procedures. Holman set up the Halsted Laboratory of Surgical Research, where he and several faculty carried out important experiments. Holman is best known for his work on arteriovenous fistulas. Holman served as the 33rd American Association for Thoracic Surgery President.

Historical Perspectives of The American Association for Thoracic Surgery: Emile Frederic Holman, MD (1890–1977)

Frank L.A. Gerbode, MD

Frank L.A. Gerbode performed the first successful open-heart operation on the West Coast in 1954.

Bio

Frank L.A. Gerbode completed his studies at Stanford and was awarded his medical degree from Stanford School of Medicine in 1936. He later continued his surgical training at Stanford. Gerbode is credited for performing the first open-heart operation on the West Coast in 1954 and refining the membrane oxygenator. He served as the chief resident in surgery from 1939 to 1940 and later joined the Stanford faculty as an instructor in surgery. Active in many fields within cardiac surgery, his name is associated with the defect of a left ventricular to right atrial fistula. Gerbode served as the 53rd American Association for Thoracic Surgery President.

Historical perspectives of The American Association for Thoracic Surgery: Frank Gerbode (1907-1984)

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.

Bio

Norman E. Shumway joined the Stanford School of Medicine faculty in 1958 as an instructor in surgery. Shortly after his arrival, the medical school moved from San Francisco to Palo Alto, giving Shumway the opportunity to launch the cardiovascular surgery program at the new campus. He served as the interim Chief of the Division of Cardiovascular Surgery in 1959. In 1968, Shumway worked with Edward Stinson to perform the first adult human heart transplant in the U.S. In 1981, Shumway and Bruce Reitz performed the world’s first successful combined heart-lung transplant. Shumway had a National Institutes of Health program grant for cardiac transplantation. Shumway later founded the Department of Cardiovascular Surgery at Stanford in 1974 and served as its first Chairman from 1974 to 1993. A pioneer in the field of cardiothoracic surgery and "the father of heart transplant", Shumway is often referred to as the world's greatest first assistant and always insisted on the resident operating on the right side of the table. Shumway served as the 67th American Association for Thoracic Surgery President.

Timeline of Norman Shumway's career at Stanford

Pioneering heart transplant surgeon retires

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.

Bio

Edward B. Stinson graduated from Stanford School of Medicine and completed his residency training in 1968. He joined the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery faculty in 1969 and retired in 1998. Noted for his skill and speed at surgery, Stinson was known as “Fast Eddie” in the operating theatre. Stinson assisted Norman Shumway in performing the first successful adult heart transplant procedure in the U.S. in 1968. He was the principal investigator of the National Institutes of Health program in heart transplantation at Stanford for over 20 years. In 1981, Stinson was a founding member of the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation and chaired their first international program.

Reflecting on the first U.S. human heart transplant (video)

Edward Stinson (surgeon)

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.

Bio

Initially proposed in 1970, Pat O’Daily was the lead author on a seminal paper on the management of acute aortic dissections; authors included Stanford cardiothoracic surgeons Henry Trueblood, Edward Stinson, Robert Wuerflein, and Norman Shumway.

The Stanford classification divides aortic dissections into two groups, type A dissection and type B dissection, based on whether the ascending aorta is involved, regardless of the site of tear and the extent of dissection. The Stanford classification system for aortic dissection is still widely used today.

Management of Acute Aortic Dissections

Evolution of surgical therapy for Stanford acute type A 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.

Bio

Lawrence H. Cohn received his medical degree from Stanford School of Medicine in 1962. Cohn completed his residency program at Stanford from 1969 to 1971 where he was resident and chief resident of cardiothoracic surgery and was 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 Medical School. He was appointed chief of Cardiac Surgery at Brigham’s in 1987. Cohn and his wife Roberta endowed the Lawrence H. and Roberta Cohn Lectureship in Cardiovascular Surgery in October of 2015. He was the 79^th American Association for Thoracic Surgery President.

Lawrence H. Cohn, MD (1937-2016)

In Memoriam: Lawrence H. Cohn, MD (1937–2016)

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.

Bio

James B.D. Mark served as the founding Chief of the Division of Thoracic Surgery in the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery from 1972 to 1997 and later served as acting Chair of the Department of Surgery from 1974 to 1977. He was an early leader in advancing thoracoscopy beyond its known diagnostic utility into a therapeutic modality and set a precedent for the development of video-assisted thoracic surgery in the 1990s. Mark was elected the President of the American College of Chest Physicians in 1994.

Interview with James B.D. Mark (2015)

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.

Bio

D. Craig Miller received his undergraduate and medical degrees in 1972 from Stanford School of Medicine and continued his residency training in cardiovascular and general surgery at Stanford. Miller joined the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery faculty in 1978. Miller developed an interest and expertise in aortic surgery and helped improve surgical approaches for patients with acute aortic dissections, pioneering the use of thoracic aortic endovascular stent-grafts and refining valve-sparing aortic root replacement techniques. He helped establish valve repair as the preferred treatment for mitral valve regurgitation. Miller served as the 88th American Association for Thoracic Surgery President.

Historical perspectives of The American Association for Thoracic Surgery: D. Craig Miller (1946-)

Simple Modification of “T. David-V” Valve-Sparing Aortic Root Replacement to Create Graft Pseudosinuses

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.

Bio

Bruce A. Reitz was a Stanford graduate and completed his residency at Stanford School of Medicine in 1976. He joined the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery faculty in 1978. Reitz’s research included investigating the surgical, physiologic, and immunologic facets of combined heart-lung transplantation in a nonhuman primate model. He and Norman Shumway performed the world's first successful heart-lung transplant in 1981. In 1993 Reitz became the Chair of the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery until 2005.

Thirty-five years later, Stanford surgeon Bruce Reitz recalls first successful adult heart-lung transplant

Bruce Reitz and R. Scott Mitchell Celebration: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

R. Scott Mitchell, MD

R. Scott Mitchell is the Professor Emeritus of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Stanford School of Medicine from 1983 to 2015.

Bio

R. Scott Mitchell graduated from Stanford Department of General Surgery in 1978, and completed his fellowship in vascular surgery in 1980 and residency in cardiovascular surgery in 1983. Mitchell joined the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery faculty in 1983 and retired in 2015. Mitchell was a trainee of Norman Shumway and worked closely with the Stanford team who built and implanted the first aortic endograft in the U.S. This Stanford team pioneered the endovascular repair of thoracic aneurysms and aortic dissections. Mitchell helped make Stanford a leader in aortic surgery and was dedicated to resident training and teaching.

Dr. R. Scott Mitchell Delivers Presidential Address at 32nd Annual WTSA

Bruce Reitz and R. Scott Mitchell Celebration: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

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.

Bio

Randall Griepp came to Stanford in 1968, where he completed general surgical and cardiac surgical training under Norman Shumway, and graduated from Stanford in 1972. Griepp performed his first heart transplant on January 1, 1970, and for many years that patient was the longest heart transplant survivor, surviving 26 years. Griepp and Edward Stinson led the Stanford heart transplant team during the early 1970s, the formative years of cardiac transplantation. Griepp published a technique for total arch replacement using deep hypothermic circulatory arrest, which reduced cerebral metabolic demand to tolerable levels and provided a bloodless operative field in which to work. This technique became the standard for more than two decades.

The Randall B. Griepp Honorary Paper

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.

Bio

Philip E. Oyer completed his cardiovascular surgery and general surgery residencies from 1974 to 1976 at Stanford. Oyer became a faculty in the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery in 1976. Oyer worked alongside Norman Shumway on the surgery team to perform the first successful adult heart transplant in the U.S. in 1968. Later, Oyer went on to co-develop and implant the first mechanical ventricular assist device as a successful bridge-to-transplant in a patient at Stanford in 1984. Oyer served as the Associate Chair for the department in 2003 and acting interim department chair from 2012 to 2013.

Philip E. Oyer, honored cardiothoracic surgeon and pioneer in artificial heart assist device development, retires after 45 years

Vaughn Starnes, MD

Vaughn Starnes was the director of Stanford's heart-lung transplantation program from 1989 to 1992.

Bio

Vaughn Starnes completed two years at Stanford School of Medicine as a cardiovascular surgery resident and one year as chief resident in cardiac transplantation under the mentorship of Norman Shumway. He was appointed director of Stanford's heart-lung transplantation program from 1989 to 1992. As a pioneer in transplantation during the early 1990s, Starnes and the Shumway team developed lobar lung transplantation to address donor limitation and recipient size issues, performing the first double-lobar lung transplant from living, related donors in the United States and possibly the world. Starnes took the segments of donor lungs, from the patient’s mother and father, and transplanted them into the patient (daughter). Starnes served as the 100th president of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery.

Vaughn Starnes appointed 100th president of American Association for Thoracic Surgery

Vaughn A. Starnes Assumes Presidency of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery

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."

Bio

John Stevens graduated from Stanford School of Medicine in 1987 and later became Assistant Professor of Medicine at Stanford. He and Wes Sterman developed and commercialized the first specialized platform to facilitate minimally invasive heart surgery. In 1991, Sterman and Stevens set up Stanford Surgical Technologies, which later became “The Heartport System.” Today, iterations of Stanford's original minimally invasive surgery technology and subsequent competitors are in active use worldwide.

Doctors of Invention

Michael Dake, MD

D. Craig Miller, R. Scott Mitchell, and Michael Dake implanted the first aortic endograft in the U.S. in 1992

Bio

Figure: Original hand-made thoracic endograft.

D. Craig Miller and R. Scott Mitchell and interventional radiologist Michael Dake implanted the first aortic endograft in the U.S. The team pioneered the endovascular repair of thoracic aneurysms and later aortic dissections.

Transluminal Placement of Endovascular Stent-Grafts for the Treatment of Descending Thoracic Aortic Aneurysms

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).

Bio

To build upon the solid foundation in congenital heart surgery created by Norman Shumway and Bruce Reitz, Frank Hanley was recruited to lead the Pediatric Cardiac Surgery Division at Stanford in 2001. In 2015, Dr. Hanley started the Stanford Adult Congenital Heart Disease Program, which was selected by the Adult Congenital Heart Association as one of the nation's five reference centers. Hanley's team expanded the program's referral base across the nation and internationally for the unifocalization procedure.

Surgeon at Packard Children's succeeds with a heart repair believed so risky that others avoid it

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.

Bio

Robert C. Robbins, a trainee of Norman Shumway, worked extensively with Philip Oyer in ventricular assist device research. Robbins was a renowned heart-transplant surgeon who also researched the use of stem cells to repair tissue damaged by a heart attack. Robbins served as the Chair of the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery and Director of the Stanford Cardiovascular Institute from 2005 to 2012. Robbins led a National Institutes of Health-funded basic science laboratory, publishing ground-breaking research in stem cell biology.

Heart Support

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).

Bio

Joseph Shrager joined the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery faculty in 2008 and currently serve as the Chief of the Division of Thoracic Surgery. Under his leadership, the Division of Thoracic Surgery has significantly increased clinical volume. Shrager practices all aspects of thoracic surgery with particular interest and experience in lung cancer, surgery for emphysema, and mediastinal diseases. The Division of Thoracic Surgery is firmly grounded in research into lung cancer biology and diaphragm muscle pathophysiology.

CT Surgery Welcomes Shrager, Merritt, and Hoang to the Division of Thoracic Surgery

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.

Bio

Michael Fischbein and Robert Robbins created and implemented the nations's first formal integrated 6-year cardiothoracic surgery residency in 2008. Instead of general surgery residency, medical students would match directly into this program and spend their initial years in a moderate amount of general surgery and much more in cardiac surgery, thoracic surgery, vascular surgery, interventional cardiology, intensive care unit, echocardiography, radiology, and anesthesia. Most cardiothoracic surgery residency programs have now followed a similar model. Ironically, this model actually resembles Shumway's original approach of training individuals without prior general surgery experience. Fischbein now serves as program director for Stanford's multiple cardiothoracic surgery training programs.

Integrated Cardiothoracic Surgical Training Program

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.

Bio

Y. Joseph Woo joined the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery faculty in 2014 and currently serves as the Chair of the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery. As a surgeon who performs 350 to 400 heart surgeries a year, Woo has built a thriving clinical practice, pioneering multiple, innovative procedures, including minimally invasive techniques for mitral and aortic valve repair and reconstruction. His laboratory, funded by the National Institutes of Health, investigates new paths to myocardial repair through angiogenesis. Woo leads the Stanford Advanced Cardiovascular Therapeutics and Surgical Biomechanics Translational Research Laboratory, which is focused on angiogenic, stem cell, and myocardial regenerative approaches to heart failure, and biomechanical engineering approaches to optimize valve repair operations and novel intracardiac device design.

New chair brings innovative legacy to cardiothoracic surgery

Joseph Woo, leading heart surgeon, to head Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery

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