Dr. Ray Blackwell

James Gammie is the surgical lead and co-director for the Johns Hopkins Heart and Vascular Institute and cardiac surgeon-in-chief for the Johns Hopkins Health System. With over 23 years of experience in cardiothoracic surgery, Dr. Gammie joined Johns Hopkins after serving as chief of the division of cardiac surgery at the University of Maryland Medical Center from 2012 to 2021. Dr. Gammie graduated from Brown University with a degree in biochemistry, and received his medical degree from the University of Massachusetts Medical School. Dr. Gammie trained in both general and cardiothoracic surgery at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. His clinical and research efforts are focused on decreasing the mortality and morbidity of valve disease and improving the surgical treatment of mitral valve and other structural heart diseases. He performs over 225 mitral valve operations and interventions per year, and leads a cardiac surgery team that performs more than 1,200 cardiac operations annually. He is recognized by the Mitral Foundation and the American Heart Association as one of less than 25 reference surgeons in the U.S. for his experience in mitral valve repair and excellent patient outcomes. Dr. Gammie has a strong interest in all aspects of heart valve disease, and has published more than 200 peer-reviewed contributions in leading specialty journals including The New England Journal of Medicine, the Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery and Circulation. He has served as a deputy editor for The Annals of Thoracic Surgery and as chair of the Access and Publications Committee of the Society of Thoracic Surgeons Adult Cardiac Surgery Database. He serves on the steering committee of the NHLBI-sponsored Cardiothoracic Surgery Trials Network, and led the protocol development committee of a worldwide randomized tricuspid valve surgery trial. He is a member of the Halsted Society and the 21st Century Cardiothoracic Surgical Society. In 2011, Dr. Gammie was awarded the Johns Hopkins/University of Maryland Alliance for Science and Technology Development BioMaryland LIFE Prize, and he was named Entrepreneur of the Year at the University of Maryland Baltimore in 2014. He is the inventor of a novel transseptal catheter designed to simplify transcatheter cardiac procedures, and founded a commercial company to commercialize the device. With 20 issued or submitted patents, he continues to innovate in the mitral valve space, and recently published the world’s first clinical experience with a novel surgical repair for secondary mitral valve regurgitation, which was developed in his laboratory: mitral valve translocation. From 2016–2021, Dr. Gammie was consistently named a Top Doctor by Baltimore magazine, and in 2018 he received the Golden Apple Teacher of the Year award. Dr. Gammie is rated as a Distinguished provider by MediFind in the treatment of Endocarditis. His top areas of expertise are Mitral Valve Regurgitation, Tricuspid Regurgitation, Mitral Valve Prolapse, Embolectomy, and Heart Bypass Surgery.

Nimesh Desai is a Thoracic Surgeon in Center Radnor, Pennsylvania. Dr. Desai is rated as an Elite provider by MediFind in the treatment of Endocarditis. His top areas of expertise are Aortic Dissection, Bicuspid Aortic Valve, Thoracic Aortic Aneurysm, Heart Valve Repair, and Aortic Valve Replacement. Dr. Desai is currently accepting new patients.

Wilson Szeto is a Thoracic Surgeon in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Dr. Szeto is rated as an Elite provider by MediFind in the treatment of Endocarditis. His top areas of expertise are Aortic Dissection, Aortic Valve Stenosis, Bicuspid Aortic Valve, Aortic Valve Replacement, and Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR). Dr. Szeto is currently accepting new patients.