Message from the Chief of Cardiac Surgery at SF VA Medical Center

Message from the Chief of Cardiac Surgery at SF VA Medical Center 

The UCSF Cardiac Surgery Program at the San Francisco VA Medical Center is dedicated to enhancing the health and well-being of veterans through surgical services rooted in trust, respect, commitment, compassion, and excellence. Our practice emphasizes innovative research and exceptional patient care.

Our Cardiac Surgery Program offers a comprehensive array of outpatient and inpatient elective surgical services in Cardiothoracic Surgery. The VA surgeons are committed to providing consultative expertise to our referring colleagues and delivering cutting-edge surgical care to our patients. We take immense pride in our partnership with UCSF and highly value our close collaboration in the pursuit of excellence.

The San Francisco VA has a notable affiliation with NCIRE, the largest non-profit research institute among the 86 associated with VA facilities nationwide. NCIRE is a self-sustained non-profit organization that augments its donor contributions by securing support from various sources, including the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Department of Defense. This partnership with NCIRE, the Northern California Institute for Research and Education, empowers SFVA surgeons to seamlessly blend research with practice in advancing veterans' health.

Our Cardiac Biomechanics Laboratory is a multidisciplinary research initiative dedicated to exploring cardiovascular disease and interventions using state-of-the-art computational techniques. The intricate nature of the human heart and cardiovascular system demands advanced research. Disruptions in the left ventricle, mitral and aortic valves, and the ascending aorta have profound effects on patients' lives.

Leveraging cutting-edge radiographic image processing and experimental studies of ventricular and aortic tissue, we can create highly accurate models of the left ventricle, aortic root, and ascending aorta, yielding an unprecedented wealth of data. Our investigations employ techniques such as finite element modeling, computational fluid dynamics, fluid-structure interaction, and tissue biaxial testing.

Our group is committed to shaping the future of cardiovascular disease research by integrating data from patient-specific models that can be scaled to encompass larger datasets representative of the general population. We provide laboratory facilities for computational and experimental studies at the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center and maintain collaborative relationships with faculty and labs across multiple institutions nationwide.

Benefiting from the collective expertise of tissue biomechanics professors, cardiothoracic surgeons, and interventionalists, our group is uniquely positioned to address some of the most complex challenges in cardiovascular disease research today.