Medcan Health Management

Vivek Rao , FRCSC, MD, MSc, PhD

Dr. Vivek Rao is currently a Full Professor of Surgery at the University of Toronto and the Surgical Director of Heart Transplantation and Mechanical Circulatory Assistance at the Toronto General Hospital, where he holds the Alfredo and Teresa DeGasperis Chair in Heart Failure Surgery. Dr. Rao completed his medical and surgical training at the University of Toronto prior to completing a fellowship in cardiac transplantation and mechanical circulatory support at New York’s Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital.

Dr. Rao has a clinical interest in the surgical treatment of end-stage heart disease. Dr. Rao’s research lab is currently investigating novel techniques of myocardial protection for cardiac transplantation and new therapeutic strategies to prevent transplant coronary artery disease. The heart transplant/LVAD research group at the Toronto General Hospital is part of the largest heart failure program in the country and is actively involved in several international trials in heart transplantation and mechanical circulatory support.

Dr. Rao serves on peer-review committees for the Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR), the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada and the US National Institutes of Health (NIH). Dr. Rao receives research funding from the Canadian Diabetes Association, the American Association for Thoracic Surgery, the Physicians Services Fund, the Canadian Institutes for Health Research and the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario. Dr. Rao also serves as Section Chair for Cardiac Surgery on the Council of the Ontario Medical Assocation.

Dr. Rao has won numerous awards during his surgical training. He was awarded the Paul C. Samson Resident award from the Western Thoracic Surgical Association for his unique study into a novel aortic valve substitute. He was awarded the Salter-Siminovitch Award from the Institute of Medical Science at the University of Toronto as the most outstanding PhD graduate in 1998. The department of Surgery at the University of Toronto also awarded him the 1999 Bernard Langer Award as the most promising surgical scientist. In 2000, he was awarded the Canadian Specialty Surgeons Award from the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada to recognize his multicenter study evaluating novel techniques for heart preservation during coronary bypass surgery. In 2006, Dr. Rao was recognized as one of Canada’s “Top 40 under 40” by Caldwell International. In 2009, Dr. Rao was named the “Male Professional of the Year” by the Indo-Canadian Chamber of Commerce.