Hospital Plano, where he focuses on the heart team approach to finding treatments of
structural heart problems that limit a patient’s life span and quality of life, so that patients and families know they have the best information to make shared decisions regarding their care.
Background
Dr. Smith went to Texas Christian University as a chemistry major on the pre-med track. While at TCU, Dr. Smith played football and v
olunteered at a local children’s hospital. He then went to UT Health Science Center in San Antonio, did lab research, and focused on general, pediatric, and transplant surgery. Dr. Smith conducted his internship and residency at the University of Virginia Hospital. He now works at the Baylor Scott White Heart Hospital in Plano.
Frustrated by the inability to offer treatment to improve the quality of life for patients who were too sick or frail for surgery, Dr. Smith worked with a multidisciplinary team of cardiologists, surgeons, nurses and research assistants to create a specific mitral and tricuspid valve heart team clinic to offer treatment strategies that include transcatheter therapies to expand options for patients, including those who are not surgical candidates.
Dr. Smith says “it was a pleasure to talk to a group of students interested in medicine. In preparing it, I focused on preparing it with what I would’ve liked to have heard when I was a high school student. It was fun sharing my advice and, ultimately, the ends of becoming a cardiac surgeon. It’s definitely a profession that I love.”
