Yoshifuma Naka, M.D., PhD

I decided to be a cardiac surgeon when I met one of the pioneer cardiac surgeons in Japan during the first year of medical school who later became my mentor. And I moved to PhD course after graduating from Osaka University Medical School to study transplantation biology since he wanted to resume cardiac transplantation after decades of silence. The study during the PhD course led to the opportunity for me to continue studying transplantation biology at Columbia University. Since then I had stayed at Columbia University and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital (NYP), Columbia University Irving Medical Center till I moved to Weil Cornell Medicine in Feb 2021. I am excited to be an official member of Weill Cornell Medicine where I have been serving as the bi-campus Director of Mechanical Circulatory Support program since 2008. I have been involved in the care of extremely sick patients and enjoyed seeing their recovery from advanced cardiac surgeries including but not limited to heart transplantation and implantation of artificial heart devices. Now I am extremely excited to start the heart transplantation program at the Weill Cornell campus, and carry the responsibility of leading NYP's entire heart failure surgery activities. My goal is to push the heart failure program at NYP to the top international level with regard to not only its volume but it's quality.