Steven Hunter is a consultant cardio-thoracic surgeon at Northern General Hospital, Sheffield. He was appointed to a consultant cardio-thoracic surgeon post in May 1997 and has performed over 5000 cardiac operations. His current major interest is in minimal access valve and atrial fibrillation ablation surgery. Steven has been a trainer and proctor for minimal invasive mitral valve surgery since 2005. In 2011 one of his trainees was awarded a grant to train specifically in mitral valve surgery which included minimal invasive techniques (first trainee in the UK). He has published 40 papers and conducted one randomised trial.