John S. Ikonomidis, MD, PhD

John Ikonomidis, MD, PhD is the Horace G. Smithy Professor and Chief of the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery at the Medical University of South Carolina.

Dr. Ikonomidis graduated from the University of Toronto Medical School in 1989 and from the University of Toronto General Surgical Program in 1997, also completing a PhD degree in cardiac physiology. Dr. Ikonomidis completed Cardiothoracic Surgical training at Stanford University in June of 2000. Dr. Ikonomidis’ clinical interests include thoracic aortic surgery, transcatheter aortic valves and cardiopulmonary transplantation. Dr. Ikonomidis serves as Program Director of MUSC’s Cardiothoracic Surgical Residency, which currently runs both Traditional 3-year and Integrated 6-year programs. In addition, Dr. Ikonomidis serves as Director of the South Carolina Heart Valve Center and co-Director of MUSC’s Heart and Vascular Service Line.

Dr. Ikonomidis’ NIH-funded basic science research interests include the study of a unique murine model of thoracic aortic aneurysms. In addition, Dr. Ikonomidis studies a multi-institutional ascending thoracic aortic aneurysm tissue bank, housed at MUSC, which is currently yielding information about the etiology of thoracic aortic aneurysms in patients with different risk factors. Other clinical research interests include myocardial protection and intraoperative interrogation of the myocardium.

Dr. Ikonomidis has 150 publications either in print or in press. He is a member of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery, the Society of Thoracic Surgeons, the Western Thoracic Surgical Association, the Southern Thoracic Surgical Association, the Canadian Cardiovascular Society, the European Association for Cardiothoracic Surgery, the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation and the American Surgical Association. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, the American College of Surgeons, the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology. He currently serves as Chair of the the Society of Thoracic Surgeons Workforce on Cardiac Surgery and the Thoracic Surgical Foundation for Research and Education Research Committee. He serves on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Heart Valve Disease, The Journal of Cardiac Surgery, Circulation, Aorta and The Journal of the American Heart Association and is Associate Editor of the Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery. Dr. Ikonomidis currently serves as Vice-Chair on the Bioengineering, Technology and Surgical Sciences Grant Study Section and the Data and Safety Monitoring Board of the Cardiothoracic Surgical Trials Network of the National Institute of Health.