UF names chief cardiothoracic surgeon

August 30, 2006

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Dr. Curtis G. Tribble has been named vice chairman of the department of surgeryand chief of its division of cardiothoracic surgery.

Tribble is a graduate of the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and completed postdoctoral training in general, thoracic and cardiovascular surgery at the University of Virginia, where he subsequently served on the faculty for 19 years.

He is credited with helping to start UVA’s heart transplant program and served as its surgical director for the past 18 years. In 1991, he also helped perform the first lung transplant in the state of Virginia, launching the university’s lung transplant program. In addition, he ran the general surgery residency for a decade and was the longtime director of the department’s student clerkship.

Tribble has won every available teaching award at UVA, some more than once.

“It was a special treat for me to walk from a techniques lab with an idealistic new third-year medical student fresh out of the basic sciences in the morning and in the afternoon go operate with the thoracic surgical residents,” Tribble said. “In essence, I was encompassing the entire spectrum of teaching in surgery, from the youngest and most inexperienced med students to the most senior and experienced surgical residents.

“I have always gotten energy back from people who are learning, and that has always been part of my focus,” he added. “It has been a very symbiotic mission, and not one that I do out of feeling an onerous burden or obligation but because I really have fun with it. To me it’s
viscerally satisfying to see people progress in what they’re doing, and I have not lost my enjoyment of that.”

Tribble said he intends to emphasize education here at UF as well, essentially making thoracic surgery training at UF “second to none.”

“Although this division has had a good reputation for education, obviously that’s an interest of mine, and I want to be sure we in the College of Medicine and the department of surgery are really immersed with interactions with students and residents of all levels,” he said. “I’m really committed to having that happen.”

In addition, he said he is devoted to fostering academic productivity and superior patient care. Initial plans call for recruiting an additional surgeon whose primary focus is in general thoracic surgery, thoracic surgical oncology and lung and esophageal cancer.

“I really want to focus on how our patients experience our care,” Tribble said. “I think people around the world have spent a fair amount of time looking at the technical side of what is done in a division like this, and have not spent a lot of time thinking about the patient as an integral part of this.”

Tribble, who is board certified in surgery and thoracic surgery, has published more than 200 papers in refereed journals. His National Institutes of Health-funded research efforts have largely focused on organ preservation after lung transplantation. Other projects have analyzed how children fare after receiving transplanted lung tissue from adults versus from other children, and studies of whether adult lung tissue can be stimulated to grow in the presence of certain growth factors. He also has been involved in developing the next generation of ventricular assist devices, work that he will continue at UF.

William Cance, chairman of the department of surgery, praised college administrators and Shands at UF officials for recognizing the importance of supporting the cardiothoracic program through Tribble’s recruitment.

“It’s a credit to the hospital; Shands’ contributions represent a commitment to the future of cardiovascular services, not only working with the college to recruit the finest people but also a true commitment to state-of-the-art technology, to be leaders in the technological advances we’re seeing in the cardiac surgical realm,” Cance said.