W.
Randolph Chitwood Jr., M.D., FACS, FRCS (Eng)
Senior Associate Vice-Chancellor for Health Affairs
Director, East Carolina Heart Institute
Chief, Division of Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgery
Greenville, North Carolina
252.744.4822
Dr.
Randolph Chitwood is both a native of Virginia and a naturalized North
Carolinian. He graduated from Hampden-Sydney College and received his
medical degree from the University of Virginia. He obtained all of his
surgical training at Duke University Medical Center under Dr. David C.
Sabiston, where he spent 10 years training in general and cardiothoracic
surgery, as well as basic science research. He was the first house staff
member at Duke to be selected to Alpha Omega Alpha. After his chief residency
at Duke in 1984, he was selected to develop and head the new cardiac surgery
program at the East Carolina University School of Medicine. His initial
appointment was as a full Professor of Surgery. Except for a two-year
hiatus as the Chief of Cardiothoracic Surgery at the University of Kentucky,
he has spent his entire career at ECU, where was Chairman of the Department
of Surgery from 1995 to 2003. Most recently he was made Senior Associate
Vice Chancellor of the Health Sciences Division for Cardiovascular Diseases
and is in charge of the development of a new specialty hospital and research
institute - The North Carolina Cardiovascular Institute. He founded the
current University Medical Center Heart Center, which now performs over
1200 cardiac surgical, 3000 interventional, and 5000 diagnostic catheter-based
procedures yearly. The center's research laboratories have been responsible
for training residents and supporting established investigators alike.
Currently, Dr. Chitwood's research activities relate to myocardial preservation,
and angiogenesis, as well as endoscopic and robotic tele-manipulation
in cardiac surgery. He has been the principle investigator of the FDA
robotic mitral valve trials that led to approval for this use in the United
States.
He is a member of 25 professional societies which include the American College of Surgeons, the Royal College of Surgeons of England, the American Association for Thoracic Surgery, the Society of Thoracic Surgeons, the Southern Thoracic Surgical Association, the Society of University Surgeons, the American Surgical Association, the American College of Cardiology, and the Cardiac Surgery Biology Club. He is on numerous committees in these societies. He has been President of the International Society of Minimally Invasive Cardiac Surgery, The Society for Heart Valve Disease, and the North Carolina Chapter of the American Heart Association. He serves the editorial boards of the Annals of Thoracic Surgery, the Journal of Cardiac Surgery, the Journal of Heart Valve Disease, the Asian Annals of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery, CTS Net, the Heart Surgery Forum, Chest, and the American Heart Journal. In the past he has authored over 150 peer reviewed scientific and clinical articles, as well as many book chapters and several monographs. He is a busy, active cardiac surgeon and has special expertise in complex valvular surgery, including mitral repair and endoscopic mitral valve surgery. Recently, he has written widely and lectured internationally on innovative techniques in minimally invasive and robotic cardiac surgery. In 2003 he was elected to Fellowship in the prestigious Royal College of Surgeons of England, an honor for which few Americans are selected. His lifelong avocations have been photography, amateur radio, and antiquarian medical bibliophilia. He recently returned from a most productive photographic expedition to Tibet and Nepal.
