Conference Speakers

Dr. Bryan A. Whitson, MD, PhD is a Professor of Surgery at Ohio State University specializing in thoracic transplant, mechanical circulatory support and adult cardiac surgery. He serves as the Directs the Division of Cardiac Surgery, Interim Co-Director of The Ohio State University Heart and Vascular Center, Vice-Chair for Innovation and Translational Research and the Jewel and Frank Benson Family Research Professor. Dr. Whitson has expertise in health systems integration and care delivery, clinical trials, and quality improvement.

Dr Whitson completed his general surgery, surgical infectious diseases, and cardiothoracic surgery training at the University of Minnesota. His clinical and research interests include lung and heart transplantation, ex vivo organ perfusion, ECLS/ECMO and mechanical circulatory support. He initiated the lung transplantation program at The Ohio State University with close collaboration with his pulmonary colleagues. He has spearheaded the development of the Organ Assessment and Repair Center (ARC) at OSU to grow to a 4 organ platform. Dr. Whitson has focused his career on expanding the gift of transplantation through donor allograft resuscitation and therapeutics to mitigate ischemia reperfusion.

Additionally, Dr. Whitson co-directs The Collaboration for Organ Perfusion, Protection, Engineering and Regeneration (COPPER) Laboratory at Ohio State, which brings together transplant surgery, endothelial cell biology and biomedical engineering experts to further organ perfusion and recovery research. Dr. Whitson has 30 United States and international patents, numerous grants and nearly 300 publications and 30 chapters. He has 4 times been awarded the Thomas E Williams, Jr., MD, PhD Award for Excellence In Teaching from the OSU house staff and 7 times received the Outstanding Achievement in Patient Service recognition from the OSU medical center.