Michael Mack, M.D. has practiced cardiothoracic surgery in Dallas, TX since 1982. He is board certified in Internal Medicine, General Surgery, and Thoracic Surgery and is currently the Director of the Cardiovascular Service Line for the Baylor Scott & White Health, Chair of the Baylor Scott & White Cardiovascular Governance Council and Director of Cardiovascular Research at The Heart Hospital Baylor Plano. He also co-founded the Cardiopulmonary Research Science and Technology Institute (CRSTI).

He has over 500 peer reviewed medical publications.

He is on the Steering Committee of the Cardiothoracic Surgery Network (CTSN) of the NIH and is a member of the American College of Cardiology Foundation (ACCF) Board of Trustees, the ACC Interventional Scientific Council and the STS/ACC National Transcatheter Valve Therapy (TVT) Registry Steering Committee. He is a member of the FDA MDEpiNet Advisory Committee. He is currently a Director of the American Board of Thoracic Surgery and a member of the National Medical Device Planning Board of the FDA/Duke Margolis Institute.

Dr. Mack was President of the Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) 2011 and is Past President of the Thoracic Surgery Foundation for Research and Education (TSFRE) 2009-2011, the Southern Thoracic Surgical Association (STSA) 2009 and the International Society for Minimally Invasive Cardiothoracic Surgery (ISMICS) 2000.

He is an honorary member of the German Society for Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery and the Indian Association of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery and has received the Presidential Citation of the American College of Cardiology and the Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) Lifetime Achievement Award.

Since joining the Cleveland Clinic in 1997, Dr. Marc Gillinov has become one of the nation’s busiest heart surgeons. He specializes in robotic and minimally invasive heart valve repair and replacement and in the treatment of atrial fibrillation, a common irregular heart rhythm.

A prolific researcher, Dr. Gillinov has more than 350 scientific publications to his credit and has been instrumental in the development of medical devices and treatments that enhance the care of cardiac patients.

Dr. Gillinov is thrilled and honored to work with the nation’s number one heart team to improve the heart health of people from around the country and around the world.

Dr. Bowdish joined the faculty of the Keck School of Medicine of USC in 2010 and is an Assistant Professor of Surgery. He also serves as Director of Mechanical Circulatory Support and the Associate Director of the Division of Surgical Research in the Department of Surgery. He is the Principle investigator of the USC Cardiothoracic Surgery Trials Network Core Site as part of the Cardiothoracic Surgical Trials Network.

Dr. Bowdish is an adult cardiac surgeon who brings surgical therapy for heart failure, mechanical circulatory support and heart transplantation. His other clinical interests include aortic surgery and surgical education.\

He has been involved extensively in numerous clinical trials and outcomes research. He has been a member of the CTSN since 2010 and is a very active member of the network, serving on numerous committees including the Steering Committee and the Publications Committee.

Background

• Assistant Professor, Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Department of Surgery, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (2008-2010)

• Instructor in Clinical Surgery, Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Department of Surgery, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons (2007-2008)

Education

• Doctor of Medicine, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO

• General surgery residency, Los Angeles County + University of Southern California Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA

• Research fellowship in cardiothoracic surgery and transplantation, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA

• Cardiothoracic surgery residency, New York Presbyterian - Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY

• Advanced fellowship in mechanical circulatory support, New York Presbyterian - Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY

As Chair of the Department of Population Health Science & Policy and Co-Director of the International Center for Health Outcomes and Innovation Research (InCHOIR) at Mount Sinai, Dr. Gelijns’ research focuses on the analysis of the long-term clinical outcomes and economic impact of clinical interventions, the factors driving the development and diffusion of medical technology, and their policy implications.

In particular, her recent work has focused on the design, execution and policy implications of clinical trials of novel surgical procedures, biologicals (including stem cell therapies) and implantable devices.  She directed the data coordinating center (DCC) for the landmark REMATCH trial which established for the first time the survival and quality of life benefit of implanted mechanical circulatory support devices for long-term support of patients with advanced heart failure.  She has extended this work through co-directing the DCC and coordinating a host of ongoing trials exploring the human biology of long-term mechanical circulatory support supported by a NIH-funded SCCOR grant.  She is currently the PI of the DCC for the Cardiothoracic Surgical Trials Network (CTSN), which is funded by NHLBI, NINDS and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.  As part of the CTSN, she has been involved in trials evaluating surgical approaches to ischemic mitral regurgitation, surgical ablation for persistent atrial fibrillation, infections after cardiac surgery, neuroprotection strategies, and mesenchymal precursor stem calls.

Dr. Gelijns has served as a consultant to various national and international organizations, including the World Health Organization (WHO), the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Paris, France, the National Academy of Engineering and the Institute of Medicine, and she was a member of the board of the International Society on Technology Assessment in Health Care.  She is an editor for JACC and JTCVS, and has been appointed a fellow in the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering.  Dr. Gelijns received her LLM degree from the University of Leyden in the Netherlands and her PhD from the medical faculty at the University of Amsterdam, while writing her dissertation as an international fellow at the Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences, Washington, D.C.