Department of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery
The Department of Cardiovascular & Thoracic Surgery is a preeminent provider of surgical care for cardiovascular and thoracic disease in the tristate area. Heart disease, as the leading cause of death in America, and lung cancer, as the leading cause of oncologic death in America, contribute to our focus of high volume surgery and quality driven service line that performs adult cardiac surgery in four hospitals of Northwell Health: North Shore University Hospital, Lenox Hill Hospital, Southside Hospital, and Staten Island University Hospital, pediatric cardiac surgery at Cohen's Children's Medical Center, and thoracic surgery for benign and malignant lung and foregut disease at Long Island Jewish Medical Center, Lenox Hill Hospital, North Shore University Hospital, Huntington Hospital, Southside Hospital, Forest Hills Hospital, and Plainview Hospital.
All our clinical campuses are staffed by full time Zucker School of Medicine faculty and board certified specialty specific surgeons, excelling in cutting edge techniques, superior clinical outcomes, with emphasis on patient centric care, minimally invasive procedures, robotic assisted surgery, and advanced critical care therapies.
Research in the department is centered on the National Institute of Health clinical trials, focusing on structural heart disease and endovascular techniques. We also have a research collaboration between Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and our thoracic division, analyzing tumor markers in lung cancer.
The department has two ACGME fellowship programs for training in cardiovascular and thoracic surgery: a traditional two-year track following general surgery residency, and an integrated six-year track incorporating general surgery training with cardiovascular and thoracic surgical training. Finally, the department has a medical student mentorship program by which Zucker School of Medicine students are aligned and closely mentored by our department faculty, gaining exposure to clinical and research opportunities during their time in medical school. Cardiac and thoracic surgery elective rotations for third year medical students are available and very popular, with a primary emphasis on the intraoperative exposure to the most common cardiothoracic surgical procedures, and secondary emphasis on the intensive care unit management of our patients. The cardiothoracic unit at North Shore is a fertile, supervised learning environment for the critical care management of these patients.