David H. Adams
Encyclopedia
David H. Adams is an American
cardiac surgeon
and the Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis
Professor and Chairman of the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Mount Sinai Medical Center
.
Adams is internationally recognized as a leader in the field of heart valve surgery and mitral valve repair
. He is a much sought after speaker in this field, and has an extensive video library of advanced techniques in valve reconstruction. He is a co-author, with Professor Alain F. Carpentier
, of the upcoming book Carpentier's Valve Reconstruction, and is a co-creator of 2 mitral valve annuloplasty repair rings (Carpentier-Edwards Physio II Annuloplasty Ring and the Carpentier-McCarthy-Adams IMR ETlogix Ring). He is a senior consultant with patent and royalty agreements with Edwards Lifesciences, the largest heart valve company in the world. He is also the Co-Director of the annual American College of Cardiology
Heart Valve Summit.
s and serves on the Editorial Boards of several medical journals, including the Annals of Thoracic Surgery.
He received his undergraduate
and medical education
at Duke University
and served his internship and residency in general and cardiothoracic surgery
at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and at Harvard Medical School
in Boston
. Adams followed that with a fellowship in the Cardiothoracic Unit at Harefield Hospital
in London under Professor Sir Magdi Yacoub
. In addition, he took time away from his clinical training to complete a two-year research fellowship under Professor Morris Karnovsky in the Department of Pathology at Harvard Medical School
.
At Brigham and Women's Hospital/Boston Children's Hospital he was Associate Director of the Cardiothoracic Residency Program and Director of the Hospital Primate
Laboratory, then Director of the Cardiothoracic Residency Program. He has been Chairman of the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Mount Sinai Medical Center since 2002, following Randall B. Griepp
.
featured Adams as having performed "Medical Miracle #7" when, in 2004, he performed mitral valve surgery
on actress Liana Pai, who was then six months pregnant with her first child.
Immediate surgery was required to address Pai's aggressive bacterial infection
. A conventional surgical procedure arresting the heart
during the operation, using a heart-and-lung machine, and following up with a regime of anti-clotting
drugs would have terminated the actress's pregnancy. With an incision across Pai's breast bone, Dr. Adams drained blood from her heart into a reservoir where it could be oxygenated before being returned to the aorta. In the meantime, he replaced two valves, both too badly damaged to attempt reconstruction with time limited by lack of a heart-and-lung machine, with compatible organic tissue thereby eliminating the need for pregnancy-prohibiting anti-clotting drugs post-surgery.
“I was glad to be alive, of course, but until my baby was born, I wouldn’t believe everything was okay.” Pai would get her satisfaction ten weeks later. "Ima came out perfect and healthy. She’s healthy, headstrong, independent. Adams saved two lives at once."
Past research honors include the Alton Ochsner Research Scholarship from the American Association for Thoracic Surgery and the Paul Dudley White Research Fellowship from the American Heart Association.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
cardiac surgeon
Cardiac surgeon
A cardiac surgeon is a surgeon who performs cardiac surgery—operative procedures on the heart and great vessels.-Training:A cardiac surgery residency typically comprises anywhere from six to nine years of training to become a fully qualified surgeon...
and the Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis
Henry Kravis
Henry R. Kravis is an American businessman and private equity investor. He is the co-founder of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., a private equity firm with over $62 billion in assets as of 2011. He has an estimated net worth of $3.7 billion as of September 2011, ranked by Forbes as the 88th richest...
Professor and Chairman of the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Mount Sinai Medical Center
Mount Sinai Hospital, New York
Mount Sinai Hospital, founded in 1852, is one of the oldest and largest teaching hospitals in the United States. In 2011-2012, Mount Sinai Hospital was ranked as one of America's best hospitals by U.S...
.
Adams is internationally recognized as a leader in the field of heart valve surgery and mitral valve repair
Mitral valve repair
Mitral valve repair is a cardiac surgery procedure performed by cardiac surgeons to treat stenosis or regurgitation of the mitral valve. The mitral valve is the "inflow valve" for the left side of the heart. Blood flows from the lungs, where it picks up oxygen, through the pulmonary veins, to the...
. He is a much sought after speaker in this field, and has an extensive video library of advanced techniques in valve reconstruction. He is a co-author, with Professor Alain F. Carpentier
Alain F. Carpentier
Alain Frédéric Carpentier M.D. Ph.D. is a French surgeon whom the President of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery calls the father of modern mitral valve repair. He is the recipient of the 2007 Lasker Prize.-Biography:A professor emeritus at Pierre and Marie Curie University, in the...
, of the upcoming book Carpentier's Valve Reconstruction, and is a co-creator of 2 mitral valve annuloplasty repair rings (Carpentier-Edwards Physio II Annuloplasty Ring and the Carpentier-McCarthy-Adams IMR ETlogix Ring). He is a senior consultant with patent and royalty agreements with Edwards Lifesciences, the largest heart valve company in the world. He is also the Co-Director of the annual American College of Cardiology
American College of Cardiology
The American College of Cardiology is a nonprofit medical association established in 1949 to advocate for quality cardiovascular care through education, research promotion, development and application of standards and guidelines, and to influence health care policy...
Heart Valve Summit.
Biography
Adams is a cardiac surgeon at The Mount Sinai Hospital, specializing in mitral valve repair. As Program Director of the Mitral Valve Repair Center, he has set national benchmarks with 99% repair rates and less than 1% mortality rates. He is the author of over 200 publications, holds three patentPatent
A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....
s and serves on the Editorial Boards of several medical journals, including the Annals of Thoracic Surgery.
He received his undergraduate
Undergraduate education
Undergraduate education is an education level taken prior to gaining a first degree . Hence, in many subjects in many educational systems, undergraduate education is post-secondary education up to the level of a bachelor's degree, such as in the United States, where a university entry level is...
and medical education
Medical education
Medical education is education related to the practice of being a medical practitioner, either the initial training to become a doctor or additional training thereafter ....
at Duke University
Duke University
Duke University is a private research university located in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present day town of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco industrialist James B...
and served his internship and residency in general and cardiothoracic surgery
Cardiac surgery
Cardiovascular surgery is surgery on the heart or great vessels performed by cardiac surgeons. Frequently, it is done to treat complications of ischemic heart disease , correct congenital heart disease, or treat valvular heart disease from various causes including endocarditis, rheumatic heart...
at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and at Harvard Medical School
Harvard Medical School
Harvard Medical School is the graduate medical school of Harvard University. It is located in the Longwood Medical Area of the Mission Hill neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts....
in Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
. Adams followed that with a fellowship in the Cardiothoracic Unit at Harefield Hospital
Harefield Hospital
Harefield Hospital is located in Harefield, Middlesex. It is part of the Royal Brompton & Harefield NHS Foundation Trust, which describes itself as "the largest specialist heart and lung centre in the UK and among the largest in Europe". Harefield's sister hospital is the Royal Brompton Hospital in...
in London under Professor Sir Magdi Yacoub
Magdi Yacoub
Sir Magdi Habib Yacoub, FRS , is Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Imperial College London.Yacoub's major achievements may be summarised:1. Established Heart Transplantation in UK and became leading transplant surgeon in the world....
. In addition, he took time away from his clinical training to complete a two-year research fellowship under Professor Morris Karnovsky in the Department of Pathology at Harvard Medical School
Harvard Medical School
Harvard Medical School is the graduate medical school of Harvard University. It is located in the Longwood Medical Area of the Mission Hill neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts....
.
At Brigham and Women's Hospital/Boston Children's Hospital he was Associate Director of the Cardiothoracic Residency Program and Director of the Hospital Primate
Primate
A primate is a mammal of the order Primates , which contains prosimians and simians. Primates arose from ancestors that lived in the trees of tropical forests; many primate characteristics represent adaptations to life in this challenging three-dimensional environment...
Laboratory, then Director of the Cardiothoracic Residency Program. He has been Chairman of the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Mount Sinai Medical Center since 2002, following Randall B. Griepp
Randall B. Griepp
Randall B. Griepp is an American cardiothoracic surgeon who collaborated with Norman Shumway in the development of the first successful heart transplant procedures in the U.S. He has an international reputation for his contributions to the surgical treatment of aortic aneurysm and aortic dissection...
.
Medical miracle
In 2005 New York MagazineNew York (magazine)
New York is a weekly magazine principally concerned with the life, culture, politics, and style of New York City. Founded by Milton Glaser and Clay Felker in 1968 as a competitor to The New Yorker, it was brasher and less polite than that magazine, and established itself as a cradle of New...
featured Adams as having performed "Medical Miracle #7" when, in 2004, he performed mitral valve surgery
Surgery
Surgery is an ancient medical specialty that uses operative manual and instrumental techniques on a patient to investigate and/or treat a pathological condition such as disease or injury, or to help improve bodily function or appearance.An act of performing surgery may be called a surgical...
on actress Liana Pai, who was then six months pregnant with her first child.
Immediate surgery was required to address Pai's aggressive bacterial infection
Infection
An infection is the colonization of a host organism by parasite species. Infecting parasites seek to use the host's resources to reproduce, often resulting in disease...
. A conventional surgical procedure arresting the heart
Heart
The heart is a myogenic muscular organ found in all animals with a circulatory system , that is responsible for pumping blood throughout the blood vessels by repeated, rhythmic contractions...
during the operation, using a heart-and-lung machine, and following up with a regime of anti-clotting
Thrombus
A thrombus , or blood clot, is the final product of the blood coagulation step in hemostasis. It is achieved via the aggregation of platelets that form a platelet plug, and the activation of the humoral coagulation system...
drugs would have terminated the actress's pregnancy. With an incision across Pai's breast bone, Dr. Adams drained blood from her heart into a reservoir where it could be oxygenated before being returned to the aorta. In the meantime, he replaced two valves, both too badly damaged to attempt reconstruction with time limited by lack of a heart-and-lung machine, with compatible organic tissue thereby eliminating the need for pregnancy-prohibiting anti-clotting drugs post-surgery.
“I was glad to be alive, of course, but until my baby was born, I wouldn’t believe everything was okay.” Pai would get her satisfaction ten weeks later. "Ima came out perfect and healthy. She’s healthy, headstrong, independent. Adams saved two lives at once."
Awards and honors
- 2009 Heart of New York Award for Achievement in Cardiovascular Science and Medicine, American Heart AssociationAmerican Heart AssociationThe American Heart Association is a non-profit organization in the United States that fosters appropriate cardiac care in an effort to reduce disability and deaths caused by cardiovascular disease and stroke. It is headquartered in Dallas, Texas...
- Featured in New York Magazine’s list of Best Doctors in 2002 - 2009 and as one of the "Top 100 Minimally Invasive Surgeons" in 2006.
- 2002 Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis Endowed Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Mount Sinai School of MedicineMount Sinai School of MedicineMount Sinai School of Medicine is an American medical school in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, currently ranked among the top 20 medical schools in the United States. It was chartered by Mount Sinai Hospital in 1963....
- 2001 Best Oral Presentation, International Society for Minimally Invasive Cardiac Surgery
- 2000 Honorary ProfessorProfessorA professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
of Surgery, Capital University of Medical SciencesCapital University of Medical SciencesCapital University of Medical Sciences is a university in Beijing, People's Republic of China, which was originally called Beijing Second Medical College ....
, BeijingBeijingBeijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
- 1992 Alton OchsnerAlton OchsnerAlton Ochsner was a surgeon and medical researcher who worked at Tulane University and other New Orleans hospitals before he established his own world-renowned The Ochsner Clinic, now known as Ochsner Foundation Hospital...
Research Scholar, The American Association for Thoracic SurgeryAmerican Association for Thoracic SurgeryThe American Association for Thoracic Surgery is an international association of cardiothoracic surgeons. It was founded in 1917 by the earliest pioneers in the field of thoracic surgery. Headquartered in Beverly, Massachusetts, it has over 1,200 members from 35 countries...
- 1987 National Research Service Award, National Institutes of HealthNational Institutes of HealthThe National Institutes of Health are an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services and are the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and health-related research. Its science and engineering counterpart is the National Science Foundation...
- 1986 Paul Dudley White Fellow, American Heart Association
- 1986 Research Fellowship Award, American Heart Association
- 1981 Alpha Omega AlphaAlpha Omega AlphaThe Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society, commonly called Alpha Omega Alpha and abbreviated ΑΩΑ or AOA, is a national honor society for medical students, residents, scientists and physicians in the United States and Canada.-History:...
- 1981 International College of Surgeons Scholarship
Patents and inventions
- Carpentier A, McCarthy P, Adams DH. Carpentier-McCarthy-Adams IMR ETlogix Annuloplasty Ring. Edwards Lifesciences Corporation, Irvine, CA 2004.
- Chen RH, Adams DH. Fresh, cryopreserved, or minimally fixed cardiac valvular xenografts. Patent filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office October 16, 2000.
- Adams DH. Cryopreserved homografts having natural tissue sewing rings. Patent filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office January 27, 1999.
Areas of research
Adams' major research interests include:- Investigation of Ischemic Mitral Regurgitation
- Outcomes Related to Mitral Valve Repair
- Novel Mitral Valve Repair Strategies
Past research honors include the Alton Ochsner Research Scholarship from the American Association for Thoracic Surgery and the Paul Dudley White Research Fellowship from the American Heart Association.