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Dr. Douglas Boyd, MD
Dr. Douglas Boyd is a globally recognized leader in robotic surgery. To date, Dr. Boyd has performed over one hundred robotic procedures in the area of cardiac surgery. As an innovative thought leader, Dr. Boyd was able to complete the world’s first robotic beating heart cardiac bypass surgery. He has received more than nine million dollars in peer-reviewed grants for the advancement of robotics in surgery. Dr. Boyd is currently Director of Robotics and Professor of cardiothoracic surgery at UC Davis. Previously, Dr. Boyd was Chief of Cardiac Surgery at Cleveland Clinic, Florida.
Dr. Boyd has received numerous surgical and research awards including best research paper at the 1999 International Society of Minimally Invasive Surgery (ISMICS) meeting in Paris France, and best scientific presentation awards at both the 2000 ISMICS meeting in Atlanta Georgia and at the 2001 ISMICS Meeting in Munich Germany. He also received an award for the use of technology to benefit society from the Smithsonian Institute in Washington D.C. in June 2001.
Dr. Boyd did his undergraduate medical training at the University of Ottawa. He completed general surgery and cardiothoracic surgical training at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute, and followed that with a fellowship in cardiac transplantation and mechanical assist devices. He obtained additional experience in Thoracic Transplantation at Washington University. He trained for Minimally Invasive Surgery at the Advanced Laparoscopy Training Centre in Atlanta Georgia and the Minimally Invasive Surgical Training Institute in Baltimore Maryland. He began his career at London Health Sciences Centre in July 1996.
Dr. Bill Cohn, MD
Dr. Cohn has been awarded over 40 patents for his medical devices which help surgeons operate on a beating heart, a task thought to be impossible for many years. A native Houstonian, he graduated from Baylor College of Medicine in 1986 and was recruited to Boston’s Beth-Israel Hospital where he focused on minimally invasive surgery. Dr. Cohn creates procedures and devices to minimize the invasiveness of heart surgery and uses new techniques that avoid the employment of the heart-lung machine, thereby allowing the heart to continue beating during surgery and reducing the risk to the patient. In 2000, he was named Distinguished Inventor of the Year by the Intellectual Property Owners’ Association, and he later appeared on the ABC television series Miracle Workers. In Spring of 2004, Dr. Cohn returned to Houston to join the renowned Texas Heart Institute at St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital as well as the faculty at Baylor College of Medicine. Today he continues his clinical research activity at the Texas Heart Institute and St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital, where he is serving as Director of Minimally Invasive Surgical Technology and Co-Director of the Cardiovascular Research Laboratories.
Dr. Bob Kiaii, MD
Dr. Kiaii is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Surgery at the University of Western Ontario. He is a cardiac surgeon and Director of the Minimally Invasive Robotic Cardiac Surgery Program in the Division of Cardiac Surgery at the London Health Sciences Centre University Hospital. He is also one of the founding members of Canadian Surgical Advanced Technology and Robotics (CSTAR) of the Lawson Health Research Institute. Dr. Kiaii is one of the most experienced minimally invasive robotic cardiac surgeons nationally and internationally, and received a Canadian Foundation for Innovation New Opportunities Fund Grant, which allowed him to do the research for performing simultaneous integrated coronary artery revascularization. Dr. Kiaii has performed ground-breaking robotic-assisted cardiac procedures including the first North American simultaneous integrated coronary artery revascularization procedure on September 1, 2004. Since then, he has had the most experience and has performed the largest series of simultaneous integrated coronary artery revascularizations in the world.
Dr. Garth H. Ballantyne, MD
Dr. Ballantyne is one of the nation's leading laparoscopic surgeons. In 1994 he was appointed the founding director of the Center for Advanced Laparoscopic Surgery at St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital Center, where he also served as chief of the Division of Laparoscopic Surgery. In 1997, Dr. Ballantyne was recruited to Hackensack University Medical Center where he was appointed Professor or Surgery and Director of Minimally Invasive and Tele-robotic Surgery.
Before joining St. Luke's-'Roosevelt, Dr. Ballantyne spent 10 years on the faculty of the Yale University Medical School, where he established a reputation as a pioneer in the field of laparoscopy, introducing new techniques into surgical practice. Dr. Ballantyne has one of the largest laparoscopic colorectal practices in the world.
Dr. Ballantyne is co-editor of Laparoscopic Surgery the major reference work for physicians on the subject, and he has written some 40 papers and book chapters on laparoscopy. He has lectured on minimally invasive surgery to physicians around the world, conducted courses, and traveled widely to guide other surgeons in performing laparoscopic surgical procedures. His next book, Atlas of Laparoscopic Surgery, is currently in press.
Dr. Ballantyne earned his bachelor's degree at Harvard University (Magna Cum Laude in Biology) and his M.D. degree from the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University. Following his general surgical residency at St. Luke's Hospital in Cleveland, he was a clinical fellow in colon and rectal surgery at the Mayo Clinic.
An active researcher, Dr. Ballantyne has authored more than 200 scientific articles. He is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons and the American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons. He is a member of numerous scientific and medical societies, including the Society of University Surgeons, the American Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopists; and the Society of American Gastrointestinal Endoscopic Surgeons. |
