Nicholas Smedira

Dr. Smedira is a cardiothoracic surgeon, Professor of Surgery, and Chairman of the Professional Conduct Committee at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation. He is also former Director of Quality for the Sydell and Arnold Miller Family Heart and Vascular Institute. Dr. Smedira specializes in heart and heart-lung transplantation, ventricular assist devices, ECMO, heart failure surgery, valve repair and replacement, aortic replacement, and others. He has performed more than 5,000 heart operations since 1995 and is a pioneer in many transplant procedures. He earned his medical degree at the University of Rochester, completed his residency in general surgery, and completed multiple fellowships in cardiothoracic surgery, critical care medicine, and research, at the University of California, San Francisco, and another fellowship in cardiothoracic surgery at the Cleveland Clinic Heart Center. He is the recipient of many awards including the Polly and W. Neil Rossborough Term Chair in Cardiac Transplantation Research, has been a principal or co-investigator in more than 100 clinical trials and studies, has authored or co-authored hundreds of published studies and abstracts, and has been on the editorial boards of a number of journals, including the Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery.