Dr. David H. Adams

David H. Adams, MD
Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis
Professor and Chairman
Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery
The Mount Sinai Medical Center
New York, NY 10029
212-659-6820

Dr. David H. Adams is the Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis Professor and Chairman of the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery at The Mount Sinai Medical Center.

Dr. Adams is a world renowned leader in the field of heart valve surgery and mitral valve reconstruction. As Program Director of Mount Sinai's Mitral Valve Repair Reference Center, he has set national benchmarks with > 99% degenerative mitral valve repair rates, while running one of the largest programs in the United States. Last year, patients from more than 35 different states came to New York to be under the care of Dr. Adams and his team. He is the co-inventor of 2 mitral valve annuloplasty repair rings (the Carpentier-Edwards Physio II Annuloplasty Ring and the Carpentier-McCarthy-Adams IMR ETlogix Ring), and is a senior consultant with royalty agreements with Edwards Lifesciences. He is a co-author with Professor Alain Carpentier of the internationally acclaimed textbook Carpentier’s Reconstructive Valve Surgery, and is a co-director of the annual American College of Cardiology/American Association for Thoracic Surgery Heart Valve Disease Summit and the Director of the new biennial AATS Mitral Conclave, the largest meeting focused on mitral valve disease held in the world.

Dr. Adams is a much sought after speaker both nationally and internationally, and has developed one of the world’s largest video libraries of techniques in valve reconstruction. He is the author of over 200 publications, holds three patents, and is recognized as a leading surgeon scientist and medical expert, having served on the Editorial Boards of several medical journals, including the Annals of Thoracic Surgery and Cardiology. He is currently the co-Editor of Seminars in Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery. He has also served in an advisory capacity to essentially all industry leaders in cardiovascular surgery. Most recently he was appointed as the Co-Principal Investigator of the upcoming United States FDA pivotal trial of the Medtronic-CoreValve percutaneous aortic valve replacement device.

Dr. David Adams and Professor Alain Carpentier performing mitral valve surgery.

Dr. Adams’ clinical interests include all aspects of heart valve surgery, with a special emphasis on mitral valve reconstruction. His major research interests include outcomes related to mitral valve repair, novel mitral valve repair strategies, and percutaneous valve replacement. Past research honors include the Alton Ochsner Research Scholarship from the American Association for Thoracic Surgery and the Paul Dudley White Research Fellowship from the American Heart Association. He has also received honorary Professorships from Capital University in Beijing and Keio University in Tokyo. In 2009 he received the American Heart Association Award for Achievement in Cardiovascular Science and Medicine.

He received his undergraduate and medical education at Duke University and completed his internship and residency in general and cardiothoracic surgery at Brigham and Women's Hospital and at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Adams followed that with a fellowship in the Cardiothoracic Unit at Harefield Hospital in London under Professor Sir Magdi Yacoub. In addition, he completed a two-year research fellowship under Professor Morris Karnovsky in the Department of Pathology at Harvard Medical School. He later served at Brigham and Women's Hospital as the Associate Chief of Cardiac Surgery and Director of the Brigham Primate Xeno-transplant Laboratory. He has been Chairman of the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery at The Mount Sinai Medical Center since 2002.

Curriculum Vitae: View PDF

Dr. Adams is a consultant to Edwards Lifesciences and receives compensation from the company for these services. As the co-inventor of the Carpentier-Edwards Physio II ring, both Dr. Adams and Mount Sinai School of Medicine receive royalties from Edwards Lifesciences in connection with the sale of this product, but do not receive any royalties when he implants the device in his patients at Mount Sinai.