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

David H. Adams, MD

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 and most respected valve 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 inventor of a new tricuspid annuloplasty ring (Medtronic Tri-Ad Adams Tricuspid Annuloplasty Ring) and has royalty agreements with Edwards Lifesciences and Medtronic. 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 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 United States FDA Pivotal Trial of the Medtronic CoreValve percutaneous aortic valve replacement device.

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.

Anelechi Anyanwu, MD

Anelechi Anyanwu, MD
Associate Professor
Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery
The Mount Sinai Medical Center
New York, NY 10029
212-659-6811

Dr. Anelechi Anyanwu joined the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery at The Mount Sinai Medical Center in 2004 as a Senior Clinical Fellow. His primary interests were Mitral Valve Repair, Complex Valvular surgery, Surgery for Heart Failure and Re-operative Cardiac Surgery. Under the close instruction of Dr. David Adams, Dr. Anyanwu was trained intensively in the entire spectrum of techniques for mitral valve repair, and is one of only a handful of surgeons in the United States to received formal training in mitral valve repair to a proficient and advanced level. His main interests are in minimally invasive mitral valve repair and mitral valve repair for dilated cardiomyopathies. Apart from mitral repair, during the Fellowship at Mount Sinai, Dr. Anyanwu acquired expertise in complex re-operative valvular surgery, and heart failure surgery. Working with Dr. Adams, Dr. Anyanwu has led the advanced heart failure program, introducing new mechanical devices for circulatory support and has also re-established the combined heart-lung transplant program.

Dr. Anyanwu trained in Cardiothoracic Surgery at the Harefield Hospital, London, United Kingdom and affiliated hospitals in the University of London Network. He was trained by internationally renowned surgeons including Professor Sir Magdi Yacoub, Professor Gilles Dreyfus and Professor Tom Treasure. Under the tutelage of Professor Yacoub and Dr. Ashgar Khaghani, he was trained in Heart and Lung Transplantation. Harefield Hospital has performed more thoracic organ transplants than any other hospital in the world — Dr. Anyanwu is one of few surgeons world-wide who are trained in all aspects of thoracic transplantation including heart transplantation, heterotopic heart transplantation, heart-lung transplantation, domino heart transplantation and lung transplantation. At Harefield hospital he was also trained in various aspects of heart valve surgery including homograft implantation, another field pioneered by Professor Yacoub’s team. His other areas of specialized training include multiple arterial revascularization using bilateral skeletonized internal mammary artery grafts — this operation is more durable than the standard coronary artery bypass surgery using a single mammary artery and leg veins for bypass. Using the technique of skeletonization, bilateral internal mammary artery grafting can be extended to most patients even diabetic and obese patients (who are generally excluded from multiple arterial grafts). Dr. Anyanwu also has an interest in minimally invasive surgery and received training in this area in London. His interests include reducing invasiveness of surgery by minimizing incisions and tissue dissection, avoiding cardiopulmonary bypass or myocardial ischemia and reducing level of anesthesia and monitoring. He has performed open heart surgery on awake patients with use of epidural anesthesia, a technique that may hasten patient recovery and reduce morbidity in selected patients.

Federico Milla, MD

Federico Milla, MD
Assistant Professor
Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery
The Mount Sinai Medical Center
New York, NY 10029
212-659-6820

Dr. Federico Milla is a cardiothoracic surgeon who cares for patients with valvular heart disease, end-stage heart failure requiring mechanical assist devices or transplantation as well as coronary artery disease. Dr. Milla completed his training in Cardiothoracic Surgery at Mount Sinai Hospital under the tutelage of Dr David H. Adams, Professor and Chairman of the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery. Under his guidance, he has become versatile in a broad range of cardiac procedures including coronary revascularization, re-operative cardiac surgery, and mitral valve reconstruction. His other major area of interest includes the care of patients with end-stage heart failure requiring mechanical assistance. Having been trained under Dr. Anelechi Anyanwu, Chief of Heart Transplantation at Mount Sinai Hospital, he has become experienced in the implantation of mechanical assist devices such as the HeartMate II, used for patients with heart failure as a bridge to transplantation or destination therapy. He has also been trained in cardiac transplantation.

Dr. Milla obtained a Bachelor of Science degree at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 1994, and graduated medical school in 2000 from St. George’s University, Grenada. He completed his General Surgery Residency at The University of Massachusetts Memorial Medical Center in Worcester, Massachusetts in 2007, as well as a cardiac research fellowship at New York Presbyterian Hospital-Weill Cornell Medical Center from 2003-2005, where he studied novel therapies for the surgical treatment of atrial fibrillation.

He is a fluent Spanish speaker.

Mary Joy Santillan, RN

Mary Joy Santillan is one of the senior operating room nurses in the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery at The Mount Sinai Medical Center. Mary Joy has been at Mount Sinai for almost 11 years and in that time she has served as both a mentor and teacher to the nursing staff.

In July 2008, Dr. David Adams presented Mary Joy with the Mount Sinai Heart Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery Clinical Award for Excellence, “In recognition of extraordinary dedication to patient care.”