Dodge-Khatami named UTHealth director of pediatric heart surgery

Ali Dodge-Khatami, M.D., Ph.D., an internationally recognized leader in pediatric and congenital heart surgery, has joined The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) Department of Pediatric Surgery as professor and director of Pediatric Heart Surgery. He also is an attending pediatric cardiovascular surgeon at the Children’s Heart Center at Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital.

“Dr. Dodge-Khatami brings an international reputation as an innovative surgeon with a proven track record of research and great patient outcomes,” said Kevin Lally, M.D., chair of the Department of Pediatric Surgery at McGovern Medical School. “He adds another dimension to an already outstanding program.”

Dodge-Khatami received his medical training from the University of Geneva and his Ph.D. from the University of Amsterdam. He completed residencies in Switzerland at Geneva University Hospitals and the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois, and congenital heart surgery fellowships at Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago and at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children in London.

Dodge-Khatami has served in leadership positions in major cardiac centers in Europe and the United States, including as chief of Congenital Heart Surgery at the University Heart Center in Hamburg, Germany and, most recently, as director of Neonatal Heart Surgery at the University of Mississippi Medical Center.

His numerous and significant publications reflect his focus on transformational approaches to the most complex congenital heart diseases, single-stage cardiac repairs in complex neonates, and a new minimally invasive (trans-axillary) approach for the repair of major heart defects in children.