Gammie named chief of cardiac surgery at UM med school

Dr. James S. Gammie has been named chief of the Division of Cardiac Surgery at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. Gammie will oversee an extensive range of cardiac surgical services, from repairing congenital heart defects in infants and children to heart transplants and other complex procedures for high-risk adult patients.

Gammie is an expert in surgery of the mitral valve and a nationally-known cardiac surgery outcomes investigator. He currently performs more than 200 mitral valve operations per year. He has developed a specialized practice focusing on mitral valve repair, minimally invasive mitral valve surgery, and the surgical treatment of infective endocarditis. He has organized a clinical research unit within the Division of Cardiac Surgery and serves as a principal investigator for the NHLBI-sponsored multi-center Cardiothoracic Surgery Trials Network.

Gammie will guide the Division of Cardiac Surgery in five areas of sub-specialization including: heart and lung transplantation and mechanical circulatory support; heart valve disease; coronary disease; pediatric and adult congenital disease; and arrhythmias. He will collaborate with the Division of Cardiology within the University of Maryland Heart Center to improve patient outcomes through hybrid procedures involving cardiologists and cardiac surgeons working together in the operating room. He will also oversee one of the only integrated cardiothoracic training programs in the country, which provides a focused training experience in cardiothoracic surgery.

Gammie is a highly published physician-scientist and serves in editorial roles for numerous cardiothoracic journals, including Annals of Thoracic Surgery, Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, British Medical Journal, Circulation, and the Journal of Heart Valve Disease. He is currently the principal investigator on two NIH research grants in mitral valve surgery. Gammie has been a member of the School of Medicine faculty since 2002 and has served as director of the Program in Heart Valve Disease within the Division of Cardiac Surgery since 2006.

Gammie received his A.B. in biochemistry at Brown University before obtaining his M.D. at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. His clinical training was performed at the University of Pittsburgh Medical School, where he completed his residency in general surgery, followed by a research fellowship within the Divisions of Cellular Therapeutics and Cardiothoracic Surgery, and a clinical fellowship within the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery.