Translational Cardiothoracic Surgery (Handbook for Designing and Conducting Clinical and Translational Research)

Translational research is essential to the advancement of medicine. This Cardiothoracic-specific instructional guide to translational medical research serves as a practical, step-by-step roadmap for taking a biomedical device, potential therapeutic agent, or research question from idea through demonstrated clinical benefit. Fundamentally, the volume aims to help bridge the gap between current research and practice. Written by a team of expert medical, biomedical engineering, and clinical research experts in cardiothoracic surgery, this volume provides a clear process for understanding, designing, executing, and analyzing clinical and translational research within the field.

• Focusing on translational cardiothoracic surgery and research, this volume covers the principles of evidence-based medicine and applies these principles to the design of translational investigations
• Provides a practical, straightforward approach that will help the aspiring cardiothoracic researchers navigate challenging considerations in study design and implementation
• Details valuable discussions of the critical appraisal of published studies in cardiology, allowing the reader to learn how to evaluate the quality of such studies with respect to measuring outcomes and to make effective use of all types of evidence in patient care

Dr Adam E. M. Eltorai, MD, PhD completed his graduate studies in Biomedical Engineering and Biotechnology along with his medical degree from Brown University. His work has spanned the translational spectrum with a focus on medical technology innovation and development. Dr. Eltorai has published numerous articles and books.

Dr. Bakal is the Program Director for Provincial Research Data Services at Alberta Health Services, which operates the Alberta Strategy for Patient Oriented Research (SPOR) data platform. He also leads the Health Service Statistical and Analytics Methods teams. Over 10 years, he has worked with health services data, including randomized clinical trials. He completed his PhD jointly through the Department of Mathematics and Statistics and the School of Physical Health and Education at Queen’s University. His work includes methodological contributions and analyses supporting international studies spanning business strategy, ophthalmology, cardiology, and geriatric medicine, as well as analyses of kinematic data, through peer-reviewed publications and conference presentations. Current interests include developing statistical methodology for time-to-event data and building classification tools to support patient decision-making processes.

Thomas Ng is the Eastridge-Cole Professor of Thoracic Surgery and Chief of the Division of Thoracic Surgery at the University Tennessee. He received has extensive expertise in minimally invasive and robotic thoracic surgery and is a strong clinical researcher with over 80 peer-reviewed publications. He is highly committed to medical education and is a 4-time recipient of the Brown Medical School Department of Surgery-Outstanding Teaching Faculty Award and is also a 4-time winner of the Deans Excellence in Teaching Award.

Dr Sellke is the Karl Karlson and Gloria Karlson Professor and Chief of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Brown Medical School and the Lifespan Hospitals. Dr Sellke is a native of Indiana and graduated from Wabash College and Indiana University School of Medicine. He is a noted clinical cardiothoracic surgeon, researcher, and author. Dr Sellke was the Chief of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and the Johnson and Johnson Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School prior to moving to Brown. His research interests include the regulation of the microcirculation in health and disease, ischemic injury and inflammation during cardiac surgery, collateral vascular formation and the use of growth factors and cell therapy to increase blood flow to ischemic tissue. His clinical research interests include optimizing outcomes after cardiac surgery, the reduction of bleeding and transfusion, and neurocognitive dysfunction and atrial fibrillation after surgery. Dr Sellke has been continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health for 28 years. He serves as Associate Editor for the Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, Circulation Heart Failure and the Circulation Journal. He is on the editorial board of Circulation, Surgery, the Canadian Journal of Cardiology, and the Journal of Cardiac Surgery. He is the Editor of the 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th editions of Sabiston and Spencers' Surgery of the Chest, the 1st and 2nd editions of the Atlas of Cardiac Surgical Techniques, and he is completing work on a textbook on Acute Aortic Dissection and Acute Aortic Syndromes with international contributors. Dr. Sellke is the author of more than 525 peer-reviewed journal articles, as well as numerous book chapters and abstracts. He is the Past Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Council on Cardiovascular Surgery and Anesthesia of the American Heart Association and the Past Chairman of the Advisory Council on Cardiothoracic Surgery of the American College of Surgeons. Sellke has served on the Board of Governors of the American College of Surgeons and is was Chairman of its Humanitarian and Volunteerism Awards Committee, past-Chairman of the American Heart Association Committee on Scientific Sessions Program. He is the current Chairman of the Data Safety Monitoring Committee of the National Institutes of Health Cardiac Surgery Network and served on the Bioengineering, Technology and Surgical Science study section of the NIH. He is the Past-President of the Massachusetts Society of Thoracic Surgeons, past President of the Northeast Cardiothoracic Surgical Society and is a member of numerous other organizations including the American Association for Thoracic Surgery, Society of University Surgeons, and the American Surgical Association. Dr. Sellke is a fellow of the American College of Cardiology, the American College of Chest Physicians, American Heart Assocation, and the American College of Surgeons.