Dr. Richard J. Battafarano

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 highly rated in 12 conditions, according to our data. His top areas of expertise are Mitral Valve Regurgitation, Tricuspid Regurgitation, Mitral Valve Prolapse, Embolectomy, and Heart Bypass Surgery.

Dr. Stephen C. Yang is a professor of surgery and medical oncology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and The Johns Hopkins Hospital. In October 2008 he was named the first recipient of The Arthur B. and Patricia B. Modell Professor in Thoracic Surgery. Dr. Yang is an extreme supporter of medical students, being the only surgeon (amongst 20 chosen from the School of Medicine) for the medical student advisory Colleges system, and is the faculty sponsor for the Surgery Interest Group and the Asian Pacific American Medical Student Association. Dr. Yang graduated from Duke University with a B.A. in Chemistry and received his M.D. degree from the Medical College of Virginia. He completed his general surgery residency at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, and finished his cardiothoracic surgery fellowship at the Medical College of Virginia. He also completed a 3 year thoracic surgical oncology research fellowship at the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center. He currently serves on the Postgraduate Affairs, Medical School Admissions, Educational Policy, and Curriculum Reform Committees in the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. He served on numerous national and international committees for these organizations, and is the Taskforce Chair on the Looking to the Future Residency Scholarships for the Society of Thoracic Surgeons He is Editor of Practical Reviews in Chest Medicine and guest editor/ reviewer for numerous peer review journals. He is co-editor of the book Current Therapy in Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, edited the esophageal surgical section in the 2nd edition of Atlas of Gastrointestinal Surgery with John Cameron, M.D., and series editor-in-chief of The Early Diagnosis of Cancer also editing the book volume of The Early Diagnosis of Lung Cancer. In 2001, he and his lung transplant team were featured in the ABC series 24/7 and is currently also being followed in the sequel to that series focusing in on resident and medical student teaching. This series as well as other experiences are still shown on the Discovery Channel. The extensive work in preparing an esophageal cancer patient for surgery on the BBC and the Discovery Channel. Dr. Yang's laboratory research interests include using molecular techniques for lung cancer screening and for molecular staging of micrometastasis to predict recurrence following surgical resection. His clinical practice and research covers the breath of general thoracic surgery in pulmonary and esophageal surgery, video-assisted and robotics thoracic surgery, mediastinal and pleural work, lung volume reduction surgery for emphysema, and work in geriatric thoracic surgery. Dr. Yang is highly rated in 30 conditions, according to our data. His top areas of expertise are Lung Cancer, Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC), Pleuropulmonary Blastoma, Endoscopy, and Thymectomy.

Bartley Griffith is a Thoracic Surgeon in Baltimore, Maryland. Dr. Griffith is highly rated in 11 conditions, according to our data. His top areas of expertise are Hemolysis, Aortic Valve Stenosis, Aortic Regurgitation, Embolectomy, and Aortic Valve Replacement.