Top heart surgeon is named Glenn Professor

Internationally known heart surgeon John A. Elefteriades, M.D., professor of surgery, has been named the William W.L. Glenn Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery.

Elefteriades is chief of the Section of Cardiothoracic Surgery at the medical school and program director of the Thoracic Surgery Residency Program at Yale-New Haven Medical Center.

Elefteriades’ research and clinical practice focus on aortic aneurysms, advanced left ventricular failure and heart transplantation. He received both his B.A. and M.D. from Yale and he has spent his entire professional career in New Haven. Elefteriades joined the School of Medicine’s faculty in 1983, and became full professor in 1993. He has repeatedly been included in lists of the best heart surgeons in the Northeast and in the country.

Under the leadership of Lawrence S. Cohen, M.D. (see Clinical Master, Consummate Teacher), the Glenn professorship was established with generous gifts from family, friends and colleagues to honor Glenn, a former chief of cardiothoracic surgery at Yale who was a world-renowned pioneer of cardiovascular surgery.

During his long career, Glenn created early mechanical heart pumps and developed the first radio frequency pacemaker. Glenn also was the first surgeon elected president of the American Heart Association. He died in 2003.