Regarded as one of the finest heart surgeons in the country, Dr. Guyton has held various high-level offices in numerous surgical societies, including a 2003-2004 term as president of the Society of Thoracic Surgeons; has been directly involved in the refinement and development of various cardiothoracic surgical methods; and has published extensively. He designed and created a pediatric heart patch that grew along with the heart in 1984, negating the need for additional surgery, and he and and Dr. Omar Lattouf were the first surgeons in Georgia to apply the Abiomed biventricular assist system to support the failing heart of a patient suffering from post-cardiotomy shock in 1989.

Upon completing his postdoctoral fellowship at the division of cardiology of the Department of Medicine, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Dr. Calvert joined the Cardiothoracic Research Laboratory at Emory University Hospital Midtown. His research specialties are cardioprotection against myocardial ischemia and heart failure and investigating the pathophysiology of the diabetic myocardium.

Dr. Chen did his clinical fellowship and residency in cardiothoracic surgery at Emory. He specializes in a variety of aortic procedures and his research interests include renal protection in descending thoracic aneurysm and thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysm repair as well as comparison of mitral valve repair versus replacement in long term patient quality of life outcomes.

Dr. Cooper received his MD from the University of Missouri. He completed his general surgery and cardiothoracic surgery residencies and his fellowship in cardiothoracic surgery at Emory. His clinical and research interests include aortic surgery and valve surgery with radio frequency ablation for atrial fibrillation.

Dr. Fernandez earned his MD from Wayne State University School of Medicine and completed both his general surgery residency and cardiothoracic surgery fellowship at Barnes-Jewish Hospital, Washington University School of Medicine. His primary clinical site is the Atlanta VA Medical Center, where he focuses on thoracic oncology and lung transplantation.

Since coming to Emory in 2003, Dr. Force has overseen the tripling of the number of lung transplants performed per year by the adult lung transplant service. As a fellow at Barnes Hospital at Washington University School of Medicine, Dr. Force worked with Dr. Joel Cooper, who is credited with performing the first successful lung transplant.

Dr. Franco came to Emory from the University of Illinois College of Medicine; has been listed in such publications as America's Top Surgeons and Who's Who in Medicine and Healthcare; and has clinical and research interests in aortic and mitral valve surgery, endovascular stent grafts and new devices and techniques for myocardial revascularization.

Dr. Gudjonsson did his general surgery residency at the Naval Medical Center in San Diego, completed his cardiothoracic surgery residency at Indiana University, and specializes in the maze procedure, off-pump coronary artery bypass surgery, three-port esophagectomy and various other procedures.

Joining the faculty in July 2009, Dr. Halkos received his MD and did his general and cardiothoracic surgical training and two year research fellowship at Emory. He is currently Editor of the Resident Section of CTSNet and serves on the Executive Committee of the Thoracic Surgeons Residents Association. His clinical specialties include off-pump coronary artery bypass surgery, valve repair/replacement surgery, and minimally-invasive valve and coronary surgery, and his research interests are stroke after cardiac surgery and surgical outcomes.

In 1988, Dr. Kirk Kanter was part of the Emory surgical team that performed Georgia's first "domino" heart transplant. That same year, he performed the state's first pediatric heart transplant on a three-year-old at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta at Egleston. In 1993, he performed Georgia's first lung transplant. He was appointed Egleston's Chief of Cardiothoracic Surgery as well as Director of the Heart and Lung Transplant Program in 1998. Under Dr. Kanter's guidance, Egleston began offering the Stage 1 Norwood procedure for hypoplastic left heart syndrome in 2000; by 2005, the service was achieving some of the best outcomes with the procedure in the country with a 91 percent 30-day in-hospital survival rate. In 2008, he performed the first pediatric Berlin Heart surgery in Georgia.

Dr. Kirshbom came to Emory in 2002 after completing his fellowship in pediatric cardiothoracic surgery at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. He devotes part of his time to research initiatives, such as evaluating the genetic factors involved in the development of single ventricle heart disease, and specializes in neonatal and infant cardiac repairs, congenital heart disease and neurological protection.

Dr. Kogon joined the service after completing his pediatric cardiac surgery fellowship at Emory in 2004. In 2006 he was appointed Surgical Director of Adult Congenital Cardiac Surgery. In March 2008, Dr. Kogon performed Emory University Hospital's 500th adult heart transplant. His clinical focuses are pediatric cardiac surgery, cardiac transplantation and adult congenital heart surgery.

Dr. Lattouf received his MD and PhD in anatomy and completed his general surgery residency and fellowships in cardiothoracic surgery and cardiac transplantation at Emory. In 1988, Dr. Lattouf and Dr. Kirk Kanter performed Georgia's first "domino" heart transplant. The following year, he and Dr. Robert Guyton implanted the state's first Abiomed biventricular assist system to support the failing heart of a patient suffering from post-cardiotomy shock, and in 2001 he performed the world's first totally endoscopic left ventricular resynchronization.

While at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, Dr. Lefer and his co-researchers showed that delivering hydrogen sulfide to the liver could reduce damage caused by loss and restoration of blood flow in a mouse model of liver surgery. The results were published in the August 2008 issue of the American Journal of Physiology, Heart and Circulatory Physiology. He and his colleagues previously showed that hydrogen sulfide could limit scarring and inflammation in the heart muscles of mice after a simulated heart attack. Dr. Lefer was attracted to Emory because of opportunities to collaborate with several scientists who work on oxidative stress.

Dr. Mansour has been an Emory faculty member since 1971 and currently practices at the Atlanta VA Medical Center. He is widely known for perfecting a technique replacing the esophagus with a section of bowel. In 2001 he was awarded the Shield of Medicine by the Medical Scientific Society of Egypt for being one of the ten most outstanding Egyptian doctors in the world, and in 2008 he received the prestigious Emory Medal for distinguished service and notable professional and academic achievement.

As a fellow in thoracic and cardiovascular surgery at the Mayo Clinic, Dr. Miller did the first thoracoscopic surgery ever performed there in 1991. From 1994-1997, he co-directed the lung transplant program at University of Louisville Hospitals in Kentucky, then returned to Mayo as a faculty surgeon for five years, where he focused on refining thoracoscopic surgery for hyperhidrosis. After arriving at Emory in 2002, he initiated the Emory Hyperhidrosis Center, the only service of its type in Georgia offering minimally invasive microthoracoscopic sympathectomy for treating hyperhidrosis.

Dr. Miller received his MD from Emory. His general surgery residency and cardiac fellowship were done at the Mayo Clinic and his cardiothoracic surgery residency was completed at Emory. He joined the Emory faculty in 1974. Dr. Miller served as the Director of the American Board of Thoracic Surgery from 1991-1996, was president of the Southern Thoracic Surgical Association in 2003, an examiner for the American Board of Thoracic Surgery, served on the editorial boards of the Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery and American Family Practice Physician and has received numerous local and national Best Doctor awards.

Dr. Morris did a fellowship in cardiopulmonary transplantation and mechanical circulatory support at the Texas Heart Institute following the completion of his cardiothoracic surgery fellowship at Emory. His clinical specialties include myocardial revascularization, heart valve surgery and cardiopulmonary transplantation, while his research interests are myocardial and donor graft protection, myocardial recovery after assist device implantation and total artificial heart.

Dr. Myung completed his cardiothoracic surgery residency at Emory in June 2009. He received his MD from New York Medical College and began his general surgery residency at Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington, DC. After completing a three year cardiothoracic research fellowship at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, he finished his general surgery residency at the University of Pennsylvania. His special interests are minimally invasive valve surgery, off pump and minimally invasive coronary bypass, and aortic surgery.

Dr. Nguyen came to the department in October 2008 from the University of Miami Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine and Jackson Memorial Hospital. He did his cardiothoracic surgery fellowship at Emory and a fellowship in mechanical assist devices and heart and lung transplantation at the Heart, Lung and Esophageal Surgery Institute of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

Dr. Picken's clinical specialties include minimally invasive pulmonary resection, sympathectomy for hyperhidrosis, lung transplantation, esophageal surgery and treating other surgical diseases of the chest, while his primary research interests are clinical and translational lung cancer research and minimally invasive surgical technology. He came to Emory from the University of Michigan Health System, where he was the thoracic surgery workforce coordinator.

Dr. Puskas specializes in adult cardiac surgery and lung transplantation. He began performing coronary bypass operations on beating hearts without using a heart-lung machine in 1996, and has conducted various high profile studies investigating the procedure's medical benefit, such as the 2000-2004 SMART study that established the efficacy of off-pump coronary bypass in providing complete revascularization with patency rates equivalent to conventional coronary artery bypass graft surgery as well as a decreased hospital morbidity. In 1997, he performed the world's first triple off-pump bypass surgery using minimally invasive coronary artery bypass graft (mini-CABG) instrumentation. Dr. Puskas is PI of a grant from the National Institute of Health's National Heart Lung and Blood Institute that makes Emory one of eight U.S. centers charged with rigorous scientific evaluation of newer methods of fighting cardiovascular disease.

Dr. Thourani specializes in mitral valve repair and replacement, aortic valve surgery and ascending aortic aneurysm repair, lone and concomitant atrial fibrillation surgery, and on and off pump coronary artery revascularization. He did his general surgery residency, cardiothoracic residency, and cardiothoracic surgical research and clinical fellowships at Emory.

In 1999 at a hospital in Moscow, Dr. Vassiliades performed the world's first totally endoscopic CAB with the Zeus Robotic Surgical System. In 2001, he performed the first robotic internal mammary artery harvest in the U.S. with Zeus in Pensacola, FL. Shortly after coming to Emory in 2003, Dr. Vassiliades established one of the only cardiac surgery centers in the world to offer endoscopic atraumatic coronary artery bypass.

In 1999, Dr. Vega implanted Georgia's first dual pump ventricular assist device (VAD) to serve as a bridge to heart transplantation, a procedure that initiated Emory's ongoing national position at the forefront of the use of mechanical circulatory assist devices. In 2006, he implanted the state's first VAD as a form of destination therapy for individuals who are ineligible for or are unwilling to undergo a heart transplant, and in 2007 he implanted an even smaller VAD for the same purpose that featured an automatic speed control mode designed to regulate pumping activity based on different levels of patient or cardiac activity.

Dr. Vinten-Johansen received his MS and PhD in physiology from Rutgers and completed his post-doctoral research fellowship at the Department of Thoracic Surgery, UCLA Medical Center. His primary research focus is the investigation of the mechanisms and treatment of surgical and non-surgical myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury, and he has directed Emory's Cardiothoracic Research Laboratory of the Carlyle Fraser Heart Center since 1996.