Dr. Himanshu J. Patel

Dr. Gorav Ailawadi joined the University of Michigan as the Chair of Cardiac Surgery in September of 2020. Previously, he served as the Chief of Cardiac Surgery, Co-Director of the Cardiac Valve Center, and Director of the Medical Device Innovation Center at the University of Virginia.Dr. Ailawadi was raised in Maryland and New Jersey. He attended an accelerated honors program in medical education at Northwestern University where he received the awards for best overall student and top surgical student. Additionally, he was elected to the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Society. While completing a surgery residency at the University of Michigan, Dr. Ailawadi spent two research years investigating and understanding the development of aortic aneurysms. His work was recognized by the NIH/Lifeline Association and was chosen as the top research project in 2003. While at Michigan, he received the Top Resident and Young Investigator Awards. He then completed his training and joined the faculty at the University of Virginia in thoracic and cardiovascular surgery.Dr. Ailawadi has internationally-recognized expertise in mitral and aortic valve disease with vast experience in minimally invasive cardiac surgery, and percutaneous/transcatheter valve therapies having performed over 600 minimally invasive procedures and roughly 3000 heart operations. He has been invited to national and international conferences to share his expertise with novel minimally invasive approaches, valve disease, reoperative and AF surgery.At Virginia, Dr. Ailawadi was the first surgeon in the U.S. to perform hybrid AF ablation, the first U.S. Surgeon to perform the MitraClip procedure, and the world’s first transcaval TEVAR procedure. He has been the principal investigator for a novel left atrial appendage clip to prevent strokes in patients with atrial fibrillation. Dr. Ailawadi served one of five core principal investigators leading the CTSN linked research consortium (NIH) developing new trials in cardiac surgery. Currently, Dr. Ailawadi is on the executive steering committee for numerous transcatheter and surgical trials in valvular disease. Dr. Ailawadi is the surgical national principal investigator for the Summit Trial investigating TENDYNE, a transcatheter mitral valve replacement without stopping the heart. In 2019, Dr. Ailawadi completed his MBA from the Darden School of Business.Dr. Ailawadi has been funded by the NIH, AHA, among other grants. His research lab studies novel mechanisms and new treatments for aortic aneurysms. He has published over 350 peer-reviewed manuscripts in journals, including the New England Journal of Medicine, Circulation, and JACC. Dr. Ailawadi is member of the American Association for Thoracic Surgeons, the American Surgical Association, and the Cardiac Surgery Biology Club. In his leisure time, Dr. Ailawadi enjoys exercise, sports, and spending time with his wife, Aarti, and their three children. Dr. Ailawadi is highly rated in 27 conditions, according to our data. His clinical expertise encompasses Mitral Valve Regurgitation, Thoracic Aortic Aneurysm, Tricuspid Regurgitation, Coronary Artery Bypass Graft (CABG), and Heart Bypass Surgery. Dr. Ailawadi is board certified in Thoracic & Cardiac Surgery and Surgery.

Dr. Fukuhara earned his medical degree from Keio University School of Medicine in Tokyo, Japan (2006), where he also received training in surgery (2009) and cardiovascular surgery (2010) with intense endovascular experience. After moving to the United States, he completed his general surgery residency at Beth Israel Medical Center, New York, NY (2014), cardiothoracic surgery residency at Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY (2016), aortic surgery fellowship at University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA (2017), and aortic and endovascular fellowship at the Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH (2018). He is board certified by the American Board of Surgery, the American Board of Thoracic Surgery and the Japan Surgical Society. Dr. Fukuhara is highly rated in 19 conditions, according to our data. His clinical expertise encompasses Aortic Dissection, Aortic Valve Stenosis, Thoracic Aortic Aneurysm, Aortic Valve Replacement, and Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR). Dr. Fukuhara is board certified in Surgery and Thoracic & Cardiac Surgery.

Bo Yang, MD, Ph.D., joined the Department of Cardiac Surgery at the University of Michigan in July 2011 after completing his Cardiothoracic surgery fellowship at Stanford University. His clinical expertise spans the range of complex aortic surgical procedures to treat aortic pathology from aortic root to the femoral arteries (including open and TEVAR) and adult cardiac procedures, for patients with aortic aneurysm and dissections, such as bicuspid aortic vale, Marfan’s syndrome, Loeys-Dietz syndrome, familial thoracic aortic aneurysm. These include valve sparing aortic root replacement (David procedure), Bentall procedures, repair of aortic dissections, thoracic aortic aneurysms, thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysms through open and endovascular procedures, aortic valve repair and other adult cardiac procedures including mitral valve repair and replacement, coronary artery revascularization and resection of cardiac tumors. Dr. Yang has been very productive in basic science research and clinical research. He and his team use patient’s induced pleuripotent stem cells (iPSCs) to model the thoracic aortic aneurysm and study the mechanism of aortic aneurysm in bicuspid aortic valve and in patients with known mutations, such as Loyes-Dietz syndrome, Marfan syndrome, in order to develop novel therapies to prevent aortic aneurysm. Clinically, He and his team work have focused outcome research of aortic surgery and adult cardiac surgery, including acute aortic dissection, aortic root repair, aortic arch repair, thoraco or thoracoabdominal aneurysm repair. Please see the research section for more details. Dr. Yang is highly rated in 23 conditions, according to our data. His clinical expertise encompasses Aortic Dissection, Thoracic Aortic Aneurysm, Bicuspid Aortic Valve, Aortic Valve Replacement, and Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR). Dr. Yang is board certified in Thoracic & Cardiac Surgery.