Nicholas G. Smedira, MD, is Surgical Director of the Cleveland Clinic Kaufman Center for Heart Failure, Director of the Cardiac Transplantation and Ventricular Assist Device Therapy Program, and a Cardiac Surgeon in the Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery at the Sydell and Arnold Miller Heart & Vascular Institute. He specializes in heart and heart-lung transplantation, ventricular assist devices, ECMO, heart failure surgery, aortic and mitral valve repair and replacement, off-pump coronary bypass grafting, myectomy, reoperations and ascending aortic replacement. Dr. Smedira is certified by the American Board of Thoracic Surgery and the American Board of Surgery.
One of his major accomplishments was the first implantation of the Syncardia Cardiowest Total Artificial Heart. In addition, he recently performed the cardiac portion of the first combined heart/liver transplant.
Dr. Smedira earned his undergraduate (Phi Beta Kappa; Magna Cum Laude) and medical (Alpha Omega Alpha; MD with Honors) degrees from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, New York. After completing his residency in general surgery at the University of California San Francisco Medical Center where he became Chief Surgical Resident, Dr. Smedira received fellowships in cardiothoracic surgery, critical care medicine and research from the University of California San Francisco Medical Center. He won a postdoctoral National Research Service Award fellowship. He then received a fellowship in cardiothoracic surgery at the Cleveland Clinic Heart Center, where he was appointed in 1995 as a Staff Cardiac Surgeon.
Dr. Smedira was selected the 2004 Teacher of the Year in Cleveland Clinic’s Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery Department. He also has been a Visiting Professor at the Ministry of Health in Singapore, at the Atlantic Health System in New Jersey, Ottawa Heart Institute in Canada and the University of California at San Francisco. He was also appointed to the faculty of the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University as a Professor in 2007.
As principal or co-investigator in more than 100 clinical trials and studies, Dr. Smedira has focused his research efforts on his specialty interests. Currently, he is the Principal Investigator of multiple clinical trials including the surgical treatment of ischemic heart failure, gene transfer to promote angiogenesis in patients with advanced heart failure, bivalirudin as an alternative to heparin during cardiac surgery, rotary blood pumps such as the Debakey and Heartmate II used to support patients until transplant, and two permanent left ventricular assist device trials.
Dr. Smedira has been invited to present his clinical experience and research findings at hundreds of conferences and symposia worldwide. He is the author or co-author of numerous book chapters on subjects related to his specialty interests, including advances in cardiac intensive care, cardiac surgery, assistive devices and treatment of heart failure. He has authored or co-authored hundreds of published studies and abstracts related to his research in leading peer-reviewed publications, including the New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, Annals of Thoracic Surgery, and Journal of the American College of Cardiology, among others.
Dr. Smedira is a Fellow in the American College of Cardiology, Fellow in the American College of Chest Physicians, Fellow in the American College of Surgeons and Fellow in the American Heart Association. He is a member of the American Association of Thoracic Surgeons, the American Society of Artificial Internal Organs, the Ohio Chapter of the American College of Surgeons, the Thoracic Surgery Directors Association, the Society of Thoracic Surgeons, the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation, and the Scientific Advisory Board for the International Society of Heart Failure. He is on the editorial board of the Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery.
Dr. Smedira enjoys playing golf and spending time with his wife and three children.
