Drs. Michael Ma, Natalie Lui, and Yasuhiro Shudo Nominated into Prestigious American Association for Thoracic Surgery for 2025

by Mary Sheridan Bilbao, PA-C, MPAS
March 17, 2025

The Stanford Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery is thrilled to announce that Michael Ma, MD, Associate Professor and Division Chief of Pediatric Cardiac Surgery, Natalie Lui, MD, Assistant Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery (Thoracic Surgery), Yasuhiro Shudo, MD, PhD, Clinical Associate Professor (Adult Cardiac Surgery) with Stanford Medicine, are now members of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery (AATS). Members are nominated by current members who complete a lengthy application process, including three sponsors.

Michael Ma, MD

Dr. Ma currently serves as the Chief of the Division of Pediatric Cardiac Surgery in the Stanford Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery and the Betty Irene Moore Children’s Heart Center at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford. His practice encompasses all aspects of congenital heart disease, with a focus on neonates, complex biventricular repair, pulmonary artery reconstruction, and heart failure. He also serves as the Surgical Director of the Pediatric Advanced Cardiac Therapies (PACT) Program (a combined heart failure and heart transplant program), the Biventricular Reconstruction Program, and as a cardiothoracic surgeon for the Pulmonary Artery Reconstruction (PAR) Program at Stanford Children’s. He directs the Cardiovascular Engineering Research Laboratory, which applies biomechanical engineering principles to optimize existing surgical approaches and develop new surgical and endovascular therapies for treating complex heart defects.

Natalie Lui, MD

Dr. Lui’s surgical practice consists of general thoracic surgery with a focus on thoracic oncology and robotic thoracic surgery. Her research interests include intraoperative molecular imaging for lung cancer localization, increasing rates of lung cancer screening, and using artificial intelligence to predict lung cancer recurrence. She is the recipient of the Donald B. Doty Educational Award in 2019 from the Western Thoracic Surgical Association, the Dwight C. McGoon Award for teaching from the Thoracic Surgery Residents Association in 2020, and the Carolyn E. Reed Traveling Fellowship from the Thoracic Surgery Foundation and Women in Thoracic Surgery in 2022. Dr. Lui runs the Stanford Thoracic Oncology Research Laboratory, where she is dedicated to advancing the understanding, diagnosis, and treatment of thoracic cancers.

Yasuhiro Shudo, MD, PhD

Dr. Shudo’s clinical focus is the surgical treatment of end-stage cardiopulmonary failure, including heart transplant, heart-lung transplant, lung transplant, mechanical circulatory support (MCS), and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). He has published numerous landmark papers and book chapters. Dr. Shudo runs the Stanford Translational Heart Failure Research Laboratory and has an extensive background in research with focus on patients with end-stage heart failure. Through interdisciplinary research—from molecular biology to tissue engineering and surgical applications—he aims to enhance the quality of life for heart failure patients. He uses innovative tissue engineering strategies that integrate bio-engineering, bio-mechanics, and bio-statistics, and develops novel bio-cellular strategies to mitigate reperfusion injury.

Drs. Ma, Lui, and Shudo join over 1,500 of the world’s top cardiothoracic surgeons and are among the newest members of AATS. Congratulations to these highly skilled surgeons who will be inducted as new members at the AATS 105th Annual Meeting, May 2-5, 2025, in Seattle, Wash.