newswise.com/articles/mount-sinai’s-david-adams%2C-md%2C-named--2019-president-of-american-association-for- thoracic-surgery Contact: Wendi Chason Mount Sinai Press Office (646) 605-7693 [email protected] Mount Sinai’s David Adams, MD, Named 2019 President of American Association for Thoracic Surgery World-renowned mitral valve expert will lead the world's most prestigious organization of cardiovascular thoracic surgeons. Newswise — NEW York, NY (MAY 2, 2018) David H. Adams, MD, the Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis Professor and Chair of the Department of Cardiovascular Surgery at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and Cardiac Surgeon-in-Chief of the Mount Sinai Health System, will be named President of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery (AATS) at its 98th annual meeting on Saturday, April 28, in San Diego. “Dr. Adams is an internationally recognized leader in the field of heart valve surgery and mitral valve reconstruction, and we are proud that his achievements have been acknowledged by this prominent organization. As President, Dr. Adams will make significant contributions to the care and treatment of cardiothoracic disease throughout the world,” said Kenneth L. Davis, MD, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Mount Sinai Health System. “I am very proud of Dr. Adams, his significant contributions to the field, and his strong commitment to improving the field of cardiothoracic surgery at Mount Sinai and around the globe,” said Valentin Fuster, MD, PhD, Director of Mount Sinai Heart and Physician-in-Chief of The Mount Sinai Hospital, who serves as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC). “I have worked closely with Dr. Adams for many years and have always been impressed with his unwavering devotion to the highest level of patient care.” The AATS is an international organization of more than 1,300 of the world's foremost cardiothoracic surgeons representing 41 countries. Founded in 1917, the Association is committed to science, education, and research, as demonstrated by its Annual Meeting and its four official journals, the Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, Seminars in Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, Operative Techniques in Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, and the Pediatric Cardiac Surgery Annual. As the Program Director of The Mount Sinai Hospital's Mitral Valve Repair Reference Center, Dr. Adams has set national benchmarks, with degenerative mitral valve repair rates of greater than 99 percent, while running one of the largest programs in the United States with a team that now performs more than 400 mitral valve operations per year. Dr. Adams is also President of the Mitral Foundation, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to promoting best practice 1/3 standards in mitral valve disease, and has co-authored, with Alain Carpentier, MD, PhD, the internationally acclaimed and widest-selling valve textbook, Carpentier's Reconstructive Valve Surgery. Dr. Adams is also the co-inventor of two mitral valve annuloplasty repair rings (the Carpentier- McCarthy-Adams IMR ETlogix Annuloplasty Ring and the Carpentier-Edwards Physio II Annuloplasty Ring), and is also the inventor of the Medtronic Tri-Ad Adams Tricuspid Annuloplasty Ring. He is a co-director of the annual American College of Cardiology/American Association for Thoracic Surgery Heart Valve Summit, and the Program Director of the biennial AATS Mitral Conclave, the largest international meeting in the world focused on mitral valve disease. An acclaimed speaker and educator, Dr. Adams has given more than 350 invited global lectures. His dedication to teaching surgery throughout the world is well known and he has performed surgery on more than 200 patients in China, the Dominican Republic, Germany, Indonesia, Japan, Poland, Thailand, and Vietnam. Dr. Adams’ major research interests include mitral valve repair outcomes, strategies in complex mitral valve repair, and transcatheter valve replacement. Past research honors include the Alton Ochsner Research Scholarship from the AATS and the Paul Dudley White Research Fellowship from the American Heart Association. He has also received honorary Professorships from Capital University in Beijing and Keio University in Tokyo. He has held his current position as Professor and Chair at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai since 2002. About the Mount Sinai Health System The Mount Sinai Health System is New York City’s largest integrated delivery system encompassing seven hospital campuses, a leading medical school, and a vast network of ambulatory practices throughout the greater New York region. Mount Sinai’s vision is to produce the safest care, the highest quality, the highest satisfaction, the best access and the best value of any health system in the nation. The System includes approximately 7,100 primary and specialty care physicians; 10 joint-venture ambulatory surgery centers; more than 140 ambulatory practices throughout the five boroughs of New York City, Westchester, Long Island, and Florida; and 31 affiliated community health centers. The Icahn School of Medicine is one of three medical schools that have earned distinction by multiple indicators: ranked in the top 20 by U.S. News & World Report’s “Best Medical Schools”, aligned with a U.S. News & World Report’s “Honor Roll” Hospital, No. 13 in the nation for National Institutes of Health funding, and among the top 10 most innovative research institutions as ranked by the journal Nature in its Nature Innovation Index. This reflects a special level of excellence in education, clinical practice, and research. The Mount Sinai Hospital is ranked No. 18 on U.S. News & World Report’s “Honor Roll” of top U.S. hospitals; it is one of the nation’s top 20 hospitals in Cardiology/Heart Surgery, Diabetes/Endocrinology, Gastroenterology/GI Surgery, Geriatrics, Nephrology, and Neurology/Neurosurgery, and in the top 50 in four other specialties in the 2017-2018 “Best Hospitals” issue. Mount Sinai’s Kravis Children’s Hospital also is ranked in six 2/3 out of ten pediatric specialties by U.S. News & World Report. The New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai is ranked 12th nationally for Ophthalmology and 50th for Ear, Nose, and Throat, while Mount Sinai Beth Israel, Mount Sinai St. Luke’s and Mount Sinai West are ranked regionally. For more information, visit http://www.mountsinai.org/, or find Mount Sinai on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. # # # 3/3.