New medical director joins Borgess Heart Institute

Jerry Pratt, MD, a heart surgeon from the University of California Davis Medical Center, Sacramento, recently joined the Borgess Heart Institute as Medical Director of Thoracic Surgery.

Dr. Pratt also is a decorated U.S. Air Force colonel who served tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan as a surgeon. He most recently served as Chief of Cardiothoracic Surgery and Commander of the Heart, Lung and Vascular Center at David Grant Medical Center, Travis Air Force Base, Fairfield, Calif.

He has extensive experience in minimally invasive heart surgery. In minimally invasive heart-valve replacement and repair surgery, the patient’s breastbone is not divided and retracted as in traditional open-heart surgery. Instead, a two-inch keyhole incision in the patient’s chest is used to gain access to the heart and perform the procedure laparoscopically via a viewing tube with a tiny camera.

An avid researcher, Dr. Pratt will participate and initiate studies within the Borgess Research Institute.

Dr. Pratt is a graduate of the Medical College of Virginia at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Va. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Va., and also received professional military education at the United States Air Force Air War College.

Writer: Kathy Jennings, Second Wave Media
Source: Borgess Heart Institute