Joseph Lamelas MD

Dr. Joseph Lamelas is considered an expert and pioneer in the most advanced forms of minimally invasive cardiac surgery. He is board-certified in cardiac and thoracic surgery and has received board certification in surgery and surgical critical care. He completed his general surgery residency at The Brooklyn Hospital Center in Brooklyn, New York, and his cardiovascular and thoracic surgery residency at The State University of New York Health Science Center in Brooklyn, New York. After his training, Dr. Lamelas moved to Miami, Florida where from 2008 - 2016, he served as the chief of Cardiac Surgery at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach, Florida. While there, he consistently achieved one of the lowest morbidity and mortality rates in the nation. In 2017, he joined the Baylor College of Medicine, CHI St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital, Texas Heart Institute as Professor and Associate Chief of the Division of Cardiac Surgery.

Dr. Lamelas has performed more than 16,000 cardiac operations – more than 7,000 of which have employed a minimally invasive approach. He has participated in national and international cardiac surgery operative surgical symposia and has lectured extensively at conferences on all aspects of cardiac surgery, performed a number of live surgical demonstrations, and published over 65 articles and book chapters related to the field of cardiac surgery. In addition, research conducted by Lamelas demonstrates high-risk patients – including the elderly, obese, those with chronic lung diseases, such as COPD, and kidney disease – who are too frail for traditional open-chest operations are better able to withstand a minimally invasive cardiac surgery.

Dr. Lamelas has trained surgeons from across the United States and abroad in advanced and innovative surgical techniques. He has taught his surgical approach via live case demonstrations to over 1,000 surgeons from around the world through peer-to-peer courses.