Matthias Loebe, MD PhD FACC FCCP

Matthias Loebe was born and raised in the northern part of Germany. After social service as an ambulance driver, he started medical school at Free University Berlin in (then) West Berlin.

During medical school he spent 6 months with Drs. Michael DeBakey and George P. Noon at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, and 4 months with Dr. Ake Senning in Zurich, Switzerland. His surgical residency started in Hanover, Germany, with Dr. Hans Georg Borst, followed by the Jewish Hospital in Berlin and a fellowship in cardiothoracic surgery at the German Heart Institute Berlin with Dr. Roland Hetzer, where he stayed on as a faculty and became vice-chairman of Department of Surgery.

In 2000 he was recruited to Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas to develop the Mechanical Support Program. He served as Director of Thoracic Transplant at BCM, Houston Methodist Hospital, and later at Weill Cornell Medical College. Under his leadership, the lung transplant program at Houston Methodist Hospital grew to be the largest in the world. IN 2015 he was recruited to the University of Miami as Chief of Thoracic Transplant and Mechanical Support.

During his extensive career, he has performed many firsts: First continuous flow pump implant, first total continuous flow pump artificial heart, first pediatric VAD, first Impella in USA, first Cardiomems in USA, etc. He is a busy clinician and has edited 6 textbook and published over 300 peer-reviewed articles. His H index is over 50.

He has served in leadership positions in national and international societies. He is presently the president of the Roland Hetzer International Cardiovascular Surgery Society.

His clinical focus is on surgical therapies for advanced heart and lung diseases and the expansion of access to those therapies for disadvantaged communities.

Dr. Loebe has built multiple large programs in Berlin, Houston, and Miami. He is presently the Director of Heart and Lung Transplantation, Gill Heart and Vascular Institute at the University of Kentucky since Spring of 2024.