Dr. Balkhy is Professor of Surgery and Director of Robotic and Minimally Invasive Cardiac Surgery at the University of Chicago Medicine. He received his Cardiothoracic and Vascular surgery training at Tufts New England Medical Center and the Lahey Clinic in Boston, MA. He was Chairman of Cardiac Surgery at the Wisconsin Heart Hospital in Milwaukee, WI prior to moving to the University of Chicago in July 2013. Dr. Balkhy has been well known for his strong advocacy of less invasive cardiac surgery. Since adapting robotic surgery into his practice in 2007, Dr Balkhy quickly became a leader in beating heart totally endoscopic single and multi-vessel, robotic coronary bypass and has one of the largest series of these procedures in the world. He pioneered the robotic connector coronary bypass procedure (Connector TECAB) and lectures widely on this topic and proctors surgeons all over the world. Dr Balkhy has published numerous peer-reviewed articles as well as several textbook chapters on robotic cardiac surgery. He is a frequent invited speaker and presents at national and international professional conferences and scientific meetings. He has trained and proctored numerous surgeons on robotic techniques in cardiac surgery both in the US and internationally and is a strong advocate in helping to increase the adoption of cardiac robotic surgery worldwide.
