Ram Sharony
Rabin Medical Center, Israel
Biography
Ram Sharony (born 1959), is the director of Minimally Invasive Cardiac Surgery at Rabin Medical Center, Israel. He is a graduate of Ben Gurion University. Ram finished the residency program in Cardiothoracic surgery (year 2000). As an attending surgeon he was recruited by Tel Aviv medical center and shortly thereafter he was sent to a fellowship at New York University (NYU), USA. In his first year he performed a basic research and focused on expression of Serin protease inhibitors and MAP kinases pathway in vein grafts remodeling and published his basic science research in leading scientific journals. In the second year of fellowship he focused on clinical activity of minimally invasive valve surgery. He published his clinical research on the topic of mitral valve repair, outcomes of AVR among patients with reduced LV function, and his manuscripts on the survival benefit of Off Pump CABG in patients with atheromatous aorta contribute to the popularity of this operation in this subset population. In addition, his papers regarding the advantages of minimally invasive AVR over median sternotomy has been cited by many authors and contributed to the development of less invasive approach. Since 2008, Dr. Sharony serves as the director of minimally invasive unit at Rabin Medical Center, Israel, where he performs various types of mitral valve operations (replacement or repair) and aortic valve surgeries via less invasive approach for patients from different places in Israel and international medical tourism. As part of his clinical activity he leads the collaboration with the invasive cardiologists (TAVI team) and performs surgical procedures with catheter valve technologies. In addition to transapical approach for TAVI, various type of mitral valve in valve operation has been performed at Rabin medical center including direct Sapien valve deployment in severe mitral annular calcification (MAC). He is the director of medical student’s program and the residency program. In addition to his contribution as chapter author in textbooks (including the chapter of acquired heart diseases in Schwartz's Principles of Surgery), Dr. Sharony has published on the topic of the myocardial protection (ischemic and pharmacologic preconditioning) and was involved in the research and development of heart assist device for the failing heart. His recent scientific activity is on the topics of valvular heart disease, mainly tricuspid valve and transcatheter valve procedures. Ram is a proctor of Perceval sutureless valve (Livanova, Italy) and have gained a large experience with rapid deployed valve in many international medical centers. He has been invited as a speaker and panel discussant in various scientific meetings.