Bobby Yanagawa, MD, PhD, FRCSC
SPECIALTY AND TITLE
Cardiac Surgery
HOSPITAL AFFILIATIONS
St Michael’s Hospital
UNIVERSITY AFFILIATIONS
University of Toronto
AREA OF RESEARCH
Bobby Yanagawa is the Division Head, Division of Cardiac Surgery at St Micahel’s Hospital and the Program Director and Associate Professor, Division of Cardiac Surgery at the University of Toronto. Dr. Yanagawa obtained his BSc and PhD from the University of British Columbia and his MD degree and Cardiac Surgery Residency from the University of Toronto. He has completed research fellowships at the University of Wales College of Medicine (Cardiff, UK), National Cardiovascular Center (Osaka, Japan) and at St Michael’s Hospital (Toronto, Canada). He completed an advanced valvular fellowship at Mount Sinai Hospital, New York. Dr. Yanagawa’s clinical and research interests are, broadly, surgical revascularization and valvular heart disease. He has published over 100 peer reviewed papers, 60 reviews and 15 book chapters including publications in Nature Communications, Nature Medicine, Circulation, Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery and Annals of Thoracic Surgery. He is on the editorial board of the following journals: Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovscular Surgery, Ann Thorac Surg, Can J Cardiol, Innovations and J Card Surg.
MAJOR CONTRIBUTIONS TO SCIENCE AND/OR HEALTH CARE DELIVERY
- Founder, Canadian Cardiovascular Surgery and Perioperative Meta-Analysis Working Group
In the absence of randomized data to guide cardiac surgeons, most of the questions regarding the optimal surgical management of patients with cardiac disease are answered with well-designed observational studies. I have been the principal or senior responsible author on over 25 high impact clinical meta-analyses. Since then, I have founded the I then founded the Canadian Cardiovascular Surgery Meta-Analysis Working Group made up of 12 academic surgeons, intensivists and anesthesiologists from six different hospitals and research institutions across Canada.
- Program Director, Residency Training Program in General Surgery, University of Toronto
In 2018, took on the role of Program Director for the University of Toronto, Division of Cardiac Surgery Residency Training Program. I am passionate about the success of our Division and Department as well as about training future Cardiac Surgeons. Since coming on, with much support from the Division and Department, we have significantly improved the hands-on experience, revamped the teaching program and wetlab curriculum and have focused on Equity-Diversity-Inclusion in cardiac surgery education and care delivery.
- Director, Canadian Society of Cardiac Surgery National Surgical Bootcamp (2021-2024) and Director, Canadian Society of Cardiac Surgery EDI Taskforce
The Canadian Society of Cardiac Surgery National Surgical Bootcamp was started 8 years ago as a program to bring together all first-year residents from across the country for didactic teaching, hands-on surgical simulation and to develop esprit de corp amongst Canadian cardiac surgery trainees. As Director, I have been instrumental in implementing instructional innovations into the program including a virtual surgical simulator for needle handling and anastomosis with Dr. Paul Seargent (Belgium), case-based didactic teaching and most recently complete conversion of the Bootcamp from an in-person to a Zoom conference. I have also started a national EDI Taskforce aimed at studying and addressing inequities in cardiac surgery. Specifically, I am actively engaged in ensuring diverse representation, mentorship and promotion of women and under-represented minorities in cardiac surgery.