Small incisions, big ambitions: Gianluigi Bisleri appointed the inaugural Joseph Vitale and TLN Media Group Chair in Minimally Invasive Cardiac Surgery at U of T

A new, donor-funded chair in minimally invasive cardiac surgery at the University of Toronto’s Temerty Faculty of Medicine will advance the study and delivery of novel surgical techniques which can reduce the physical, mental and emotional toll of heart surgery on patients.     

Gianluigi Bisleri, an associate professor of cardiac surgery at Temerty Medicine and a surgeon-entrepreneur at Unity Health’s St. Michael’s Hospital, will serve as the inaugural Joseph Vitale and TLN Media Group Chair in Minimally Invasive Cardiac Surgery.

“Heart surgery has historically been performed using a long incision on the front of the chest,” says Bisleri. “While this is safe and very effective, it’s also highly invasive – requiring a long recovery period and causing a large, permanent scar that can be distressing for many patients.”

Bisleri explains that minimally invasive cardiac surgery, which was first developed in the mid-1990s but is still relatively uncommon due to a shortage of surgeons trained in the unique sub-specialty, helps mitigate many of the negative impacts of traditional open-heart procedures. Surgeons use small incisions – often two inches long or shorter – and specialized tools to access and treat the heart.   

“We provide patients with the same benefits of traditional cardiac surgery, while minimizing the level of trauma they experience,” says Bisleri.

A track record of innovation

Born and educated in Italy, Bisleri has a proven track record as an innovator. In 2005, he pioneered the totally endoscopic treatment of atrial fibrillation – using a thin, tube-like medical device to treat patients experiencing irregular heart rhythms. He also contributed to the introduction of the hybrid approach and combined epicardial/endocardial advanced electrical mapping in combination with arrhythmia team members.

Bisleri came to Canada in 2016 with the aim of helping to grow the country’s minimally-invasive cardiac surgery capacity. After first serving at Queens University in Kingston, Ontario, he moved to U of T in 2021 in order to benefit from Toronto’s robust innovation ecosystem and to found St. Michael’s Hospital’s new minimally invasive cardiac surgery program. 

Since then, Bisleri has continued to focus on developing new, less-invasive approaches to cardiac valve repair and replacement, as well as novel and advanced reconstruction techniques. In particular, he has led the development of a novel technique for ischemic and degenerative mitral valve repair – an essential intervention for the treatment of disease affecting the valve that regulates blood flow between the upper and lower left-sided chambers of the heart.

Bisleri holds three patents in the United States for surgical devices that facilitate minimally invasive surgical approaches and has several ongoing research collaborations which seek to refine and develop novel surgical and transcatheter tools. He has also contributed to the co-development of a novel platform for advanced simulation of cardiac surgical training.

Carol Swallow, R.S. McLaughlin Professor and Chair of Temerty Medicine’s Department of Surgery, notes that Bisleri is the latest in a long line of U of T surgical innovators.

“Every day, surgeons face complex technical challenges that open our eyes to gaps in current clinical practice and inspire us to seek out novel solutions,” says Swallow, who also serves as a surgical oncologist with Sinai Health and UHN’s Princess Margaret Hospital. “Dr. Bisleri follows in the tradition of many other great innovators in U of T surgical history, such as Dr. Wilfred Bigelow, the developer of the first electronic pacemaker.”

She adds: “The unmatched expertise of our faculty members, combined with Toronto’s large and diverse patient population and impressive city-spanning health innovation ecosystem, makes us uniquely well-positioned to drive transformative new surgical advances that can benefit patients here and around the world.”

Leading a New Era of City-Wide Collaboration, Discovery and Knowledge Translation

As the Joseph Vitale and TLN Media Group Chair in Minimally Invasive Cardiac Surgery, Bisleri will lead cutting edge research that will contribute to the development of new and improved surgical techniques and devices.

He will also be a key factor in expanded, city-wide educational opportunities that will boost the number of cardiac surgeons trained in minimally invasive approaches, and support greater interinstitutional collaboration and knowledge translation among experts based throughout U of T’s partner hospitals and research institutes.

“Dr. Bisleri is a true pioneer and rising star in this emerging field and we are fortunate to have been able to recruit him to Toronto,” says Terrence Yau, chair of Temerty Medicine’s Division of Cardiovascular Surgery and the director of cardiovascular surgery research at UHN.

The division is home to more than 30 expert faculty members and 30 trainees based at five hospital sites across Toronto. Collectively, the division has produced more than 700 peer-reviewed publications in the past 24 months and performs in excess of 6,000 major cardiac surgeries each year, making it one of the largest and most academically renowned divisions of cardiovascular surgery internationally..

“This new, dedicated chair position will help grow the impact of Dr. Bisleri’s important research, education and clinical care work across the entirety of our city,” adds Yau. “It will build greater capacity in a novel form of surgery and help set in motion a ripple effect that has the power to transform the way surgeons in our field approach our work.”

Fueled by Philanthropy

The new chair has been made possible with philanthropic support from Joseph Vitale and TLN Media Group.

“Gianluigi’s groundbreaking work in cardiac surgery means patients – who are already dealing with so much – experience less physical and mental distress,” says Aldo Di Felice, president of TLN Media Group. “We are thrilled to support this lifesaving work from a member of the Canadian-Italian community.”

“The Joseph Vitale and TLN Media Group Chair in Minimally Invasive Cardiac Surgery will empower the next generation of cardiac surgeons and make sure Canadians have access to these groundbreaking techniques,” says Vitale, owner and founder of Italpasta. “Supporting this work is a privilege.”

“We are so grateful to Joseph Vitale and Aldo Di Felice for championing the Joseph Vitale and TLN Media Group Chair in Minimally Invasive Cardiac Surgery,” says Lisa Robinson, dean of the Temerty Faculty of Medicine and U of T’s vice-provost, relations with health care institutions.  “With a new U of T chair sustaining and growing his and others’ research and education efforts in this field, I have no doubt that the number of patients who will benefit from advances in minimally invasive cardiac surgery will grow significantly in the years to come.”