Disclosure Information

As a sponsor of continuing medical education accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), The Society of Thoracic Surgeons requires that any individual who is in a position to control the content of an educational activity must disclose all financial relationships with any ineligible companies. This is to ensure that that all decisions related to the planning, faculty selection, delivery, and evaluation of accredited education are made without any influence or involvement from the owners and employees of an ineligible company. The ACCME defines ineligible companies as those whose “primary business is producing, marketing, selling, reselling, or distributing health care products used by or on patients.” The question of whether a disclosed conflict situation could represent undue influence on the educational activity by an ineligible company or whether the disclosed information is sufficient to consider an abstract, presentation, or other educational enduring material to represent potentially biased information must be mitigated prior to an individual’s involvement in STS educational programming.

Disclosure information is provided for each presenter at the beginning of the session and/or presentation. If applicable, the absence of relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies will also be disclosed to learners. To review the complete STS Education Disclosure Policy, go to sts.org/education-disclosure-policy.

Commercial Relationships of Program Planning Members

The Society would like to thank the following program planners for their work on the educational content of STS 2024.

Unless otherwise noted, these program planners and staff have no financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose. All relevant commercial relationships have been mitigated.

Board of Directors 

Thomas E. MacGillivray, MD, President 
Jennifer C. Romano, MD, MS, First Vice President 
Joseph F. Sabik III, MD, Second Vice President 
Disclosure(s): Mectronic: Advisory Board (Ongoing), Speaker (Ongoing) 

Wilson Y. Szeto, MD
Disclosure(s): Abbott: Speaker (Ongoing); Artivion: Advisory Board (Ongoing), Research Grant (includes principal investigator, collaborator or consultant and pending grants as well as grants already received) (Ongoing), Speaker (Ongoing); Edwards Lifesciences: Advisory Board (Ongoing), Research Grant (includes principal investigator, collaborator or consultant and pending grants as well as grants already received) (Ongoing), Speaker (Ongoing); Medtronic: Advisory Board (Ongoing), Research Grant (includes principal investigator, collaborator or consultant and pending grants as well as grants already received) (Ongoing), Speaker (Ongoing); Terumo Aortic: Advisory Board (Ongoing), Research Grant (includes principal investigator, collaborator or consultant and pending grants as well as grants already received) (Ongoing), Speaker (Ongoing) 

 
Vinod H. Thourani, MD
Disclosure(s): Abbott Vascular: Consultant (Ongoing), Research Grant (includes principal investigator, collaborator or consultant and pending grants as well as grants already received) (Ongoing); Artivion: Consultant (Ongoing), Research Grant (includes principal investigator, collaborator or consultant and pending grants as well as grants already received) (Ongoing); AtriCure: Consultant (Ongoing), Research Grant (includes principal investigator, collaborator or consultant and pending grants as well as grants already received) (Ongoing); Boston Scientific: Consultant (Ongoing), Research Grant (includes principal investigator, collaborator or consultant and pending grants as well as grants already received) (Ongoing); dasi simulations: Advisory Board (Ongoing); Edwards Life Science: Consultant (Ongoing), Research Grant (includes principal investigator, collaborator or consultant and pending grants as well as grants already received) (Ongoing); Jenavalve: Research Grant (includes principal investigator, collaborator or consultant and pending grants as well as grants already received) (Ongoing); Medtronic: Research Grant (includes principal investigator, collaborator or consultant and pending grants as well as grants already received) (Ongoing) 

John H. Calhoon, MD
John T. Kennedy III, MD
Alessandro Brunelli, MD
Patrick O. Myers, MD
Alan D. Sihoe, MBBChir, MA, FRCSEd(CTh), FCCP, FACS 
Disclosure(s): Medtronic: Speaker/Honoraria (includes speakers bureau, symposia, and expert witness) (Terminated); Astra Zeneca: Consultant (Terminated); Medela: Advisory Board (Ongoing); Roche: Consultant (Ongoing) 

Marc Ruel, MD, MPH
Disclosure(s): Medtronic: Proctor, MICS CABG (Ongoing), Research Grant (includes principal investigator, collaborator or consultant and pending grants as well as grants already received) (Ongoing) 

Kevin D. Accola, MD
Leah M. Backhus, MD, MPH
Disclosure(s): Astra Zeneca: Advisory Board (Ongoing), Speaker (Ongoing); Roche Genentech: Advisory Board (Ongoing) 
 
Anthony L. Estrera, MD
Disclosure(s): Artivion: Advisory Board (Ongoing); Edwards: Speaker (Terminated, October 17, 2023); Terumo Aortic: Consultant (Ongoing) 

Gregory P. Fontana, MD 
Stephanie M. Fuller, MD
Disclosure(s): Edwards Lifesciences LLC: Consultant (Ongoing); WL Gore, Inc: Consultant (Ongoing) 

Thomas G. Gleason, MD
John D. Mitchell, MD
Disclosure(s): DaVinci Intuitive Surgical: Consultant (Ongoing), Speaker (Ongoing) 

Ara A. Vaporciyan, MD
Disclosure(s): Astra Zenica: Advisory Board (Ongoing) 

Keith S. Naunheim, MD

Workforce on Annual Meeting 

Karen M. Kim, MD, Chair
Stephanie M. Fuller, MD, Vice Chair
Disclosure(s): Edwards Lifesciences LLC: Consultant (Ongoing); WL Gore, Inc: Consultant (Ongoing)

Jennifer Abelson, MD
Yasir Abu-Omar, MD, PhD, FRCS
Rakesh C. Arora, MD, PhD, FRCSC
Disclosure(s): Edwards LifeSciences: Speaker/Honoraria (Terminated, January 1, 2022); HLS Therapeutics Inc: Speaker/Honoraria (Terminated, September 21, 2022); Renibus Therapeutics Inc.: Advisory Board (Ongoing)

Edward Y. Chan, MD
Disclosure(s): Intuitive Surgical: Consultant (Ongoing); Noah Medical: Consultant (Ongoing); Olympus: Consultant (Ongoing)

Robert Dabal, MD
Elizabeth A. David, MD
Melanie A. Edwards, MD
Disclosure(s): Astra Zeneca: Advisory Board (Terminated)

Amy G. Fiedler, MD
Eric N. Feins, MD
Joshua B. Goldberg, MD
Michael Halkos, MD
Disclosure(s): Edwards Life Science: Consultant (Ongoing); Medtronic Inc: Advisory Board (Ongoing)

Jeremy L. Herrmann, MD
Tsuyoshi Kaneko, MD
Disclosure(s): Abbott: Advisory Board (Ongoing), Consultant (Ongoing); Edwards Lifesciences: Advisory Board (Ongoing), Consultant (Ongoing); Johnson and Johnson: Advisory Board (Ongoing); Medtronic, Inc.: Consultant (Ongoing)

Michael Lanuti, MD
Mark Martin, CCP
HelenMari L. Merritt-Genore, DO
Disclosure(s): Abbott, Artivion, Atricure, Medtronic, Edwards, Terumo Aortic: Consultant (Ongoing), Speaker (Ongoing)

John D. Mitchell, MD
Disclosure(s): DaVinci Intuitive Surgical: Consultant (Ongoing), Speaker (Ongoing)

Tom C. Nguyen, MD
Allan Pickens, MD
Disclosure(s): Intuitive Surgical: Speaker (Ongoing)

Janani S. Reisenauer, MD
Disclosure(s): Emmi Solutions, LLC: Advisory Board (Terminated, February 4, 2023); Isola Therapeutics, Inc.: Consultant (Terminated, April 5, 2023); Manua Kea Technologies: Advisory Board (Terminated, February 8, 2023); Noah Medical: Consultant (Terminated, August 14, 2022)

Stefano Schena, MD, PhD
Elizabeth H. Stephens, MD, PhD
Ibrahim Sultan, MD
Disclosure(s): Abbott, Artivion, Atricure, Medtronic, Edwards, Terumo Aortic: Advisory Board (Ongoing), Research Grant (includes principal investigator, collaborator or consultant and pending grants as well as grants already received) (Ongoing)

Moritz C. Wyler von Ballmoos, MD, PhD, MPH
Disclosure(s): Medtronic: Consultant (Ongoing); Boston Scientific Corporation: Consultant (Ongoing)

Richard I. Whyte, MD

STS Staff 

Scott Bradbury, Vice President of Education 
Isabel Dunn, Education Coordinator 
Meredith Herzog, Associate Director of Education 
Karen Kostrinsky, Senior Manager, E-Learning 
Anne McBarron, Education Manager 
Melisa Puthenmadom, Senior E-Learning Coordinator 
Michele Rush, Senior Manager for Education 
William F. Seward, Associate Executive Director 
Amanda Wright, E-Learning Manager