About Us

Our faculty members provide diagnostic and treatment services at UC Irvine's Cardiovascular Center, where the specialties of cardiothoracic surgery, cardiology and vascular surgery are united in one team whose mission is to offer state-of-the-art care in a coordinated, patient-centered, efficient manner.

They deliver care at both the outpatient center and in the region's most advanced surgical suites at UC Irvine Douglas Hospital. Working at Orange County's only university medical center, our surgeons offer resources and treatment technologies not readily available elsewhere.

We are dedicated to educating future cardiothoracic surgeons. During cardiothoracic surgical rotations, residents are challenged to master the complex hemodynamic and physiologic alterations in critically ill patients. We also offer a rich educational environment for third- and fourth-year medical students during their rotations, learning through one-on-one discussions with attending physicians and participating in the operating room team and clinical units.

The division uses an aggressive critical care pathway designed to maximize efficiency and cost savings while preserving quality care in open heart surgery patients. In an effort to maintain its high level of performance improvement practices, and to continue to be competitive in today's difficult healthcare environment, the division participates in a number of patient databases, including:

• the Society of Thoracic Surgeons
• the California Society of Thoracic Surgeons
• the state-sponsored California Coronary Artery Bypass Graft Outcomes Reporting Program (CCORP) consumer database
• the University Hospitals Consortium

Through these patient databases, risk-adjusted outcomes are available for comparison at the local, state and national levels. These outcomes are extremely useful in implementing quality improvement initiatives.