James S. Gammie, MD

Education

1982-1986        A.B., Biochemistry, Magna Cum Laude, Brown University                       

1986-1990        M.D., University of Massachusetts Medical School                                    

Post Graduate Education and Training  

1990-1995       Resident in General Surgery, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, PA    

1995-1996       Research Fellow, Divisions of Cellular Therapeutics and Cardiothoracic Surgery

                       University of Pittsburgh Medical Center 

1996-1999       Clinical Fellow, Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center

2013                Leadership Development for Physicians in Academic Health Centers, Harvard School of Public Health

James S. Gammie, MD, is Professor and Chief, Division of Cardiac Surgery at The University of Maryland School of Medicine. 

Dr. Gammie graduated from Brown University with a degree in biochemistry.  He received his M.D. from the University of Massachusetts Medical School. Dr. Gammie trained in both general and cardiothoracic surgery at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

After finishing his training, Dr. Gammie joined the faculty at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, where he started the cardiac transplantation and mechanical circulatory support programs under the mentorship of Dr. Thomas Vander Salm. He performed the first heart transplant at that institution.  He joined the staff at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in 2002. Dr. Gammie’s clinical and research efforts have focused on the surgical treatment of heart valve disease. He performs over 225 mitral valve operations per year and leads a Cardiac Surgery team that performs more than 1800 cardiac operations per year.

Dr. Gammie has a strong interest in outcomes research in heart valve surgery and has published over 180 articles in journals such as The Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery and Circulation. He serves as principal investigator at the University of Maryland for the Cardiothoracic Surgery Trials Network for multiple prospective randomized clinical trials sponsored by the NHLBI.

Dr. Gammie and his team invented a device that enables minimally invasive beating-heart mitral valve repair and founded Harpoon Medical in 2013 to move the technology into widespread clinical application. It has been approved for clinical use in Europe and Harpoon was acquired by Edwards Lifesciences in 2017.

Gammie was appointed Chief of the Division in 2012. He has overseen a doubling of Cardiac Surgery’s market share at the University of Maryland from FY12 to 2019. He has recruited 12 new faculty members to establish a three-star cardiac surgery program at Prince Georges Hospital that has performed over 200 cases and has worked to build the University of Maryland St. Joseph Medical Center (UMSJMC) Cardiac Surgery Program – doubling the number of cases performed. He has started a Clinical Research Unit that now has six full-time clinical research coordinators and participates in 44 clinical trials.

He is married to Ann Fraker, M.D., an endocrinologist and has two sons, ages 15 and 17.

Mitral Valve, Regurgitation, Mitral Valve Prolapse, Transseptal

Quinn RW, Wang L, Foster N, Pasrija C, Ghoreishi M, Dawood M, Gammie JS. Long Term Performance of Fresh Autologous Pericardium for Mitral Valve Leaflet Repair. Ann Thorac Surg. 2019 Jul 6. pii: S0003-4975(19)30997-X.

Thourani VH, Badhwar V, Shahian DM, O'Brien S, Kitahara H, Vemulapalli S, Brennan Williams JB, Shah AA, Zhang S, Jung SH, Yerokun B, Vemulapalli S, Smith PK,  JM, Habib RH, Fernandez F, D'Agostino RS, Lobdell K, Rankin JS, Gammie JS, Higgins R, Sabik J, Schwann TA, Jacobs JP. The Society of Thoracic Surgeons Adult  Cardiac Surgery Database: 2019 Update on Research. Ann Thorac Surg. 2019 Aug;108(2):334-342.

Gammie JS, Gaca JG. Impact of Microbiological Organism Type on Surgically Managed Ann Thorac Surg. 2019 May 16. pii: S0003-4975(19)30702-7.

Pasrija C, Bittle GJ, Zhang J, Morales D, Tran D, Deatrick KB, Gammie JS, Wu Z, Griffith BP, Kon ZN, Kaczorowski DJ. A novel adaptor system enables endovascular access through extracorporeal life support circuits. J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg. 2019 Feb 21.     

Watkins AC, Gammie JS. Reply. Ann Thorac Surg. 2019 Aug;108(2):646. Ferket BS, Ailawadi G, Gelijns AC, Acker M, Hohmann SF, Chang HL, Bouchard, D, Meltzer DO, Michler RE, Moquete EG, Voisine P, Mullen JC, Lala A, Mack MJ, Gillinov AM, Thourani VH, Miller MA, Gammie JS, Parides MK, Bagiella E, Smith RL, Smith PK, et al. Cost-Effectiveness of Mitral Valve Repair Versus Replacement for Severe Ischemic Mitral Regurgitation: A Randomized Clinical Trial From the Cardiothoracic Surgical Trials Network Circ Cardiovasc Qual Outcomes. 2018 Nov 14;11(11): e004466.