Igor D. Gregoric, MD is the Associate Chief of Transplant Service and Director of Mechanical Circulatory Support for St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital. He is Associate Director of Cardiovascular Surgical Research and Director of Mechanical Circulatory Support at the Texas Heart Institute.

Dr. Gregoric holds a Doctorate of Medicine and completed his Residency in General Surgery at the University of Texas Health Science Center-Houston. He has also completed a Fellowship in Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery at the Texas Heart Institute as well as a Residency in Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery at the Texas Heart Institute. He is certified by the American Board of Surgery and licensed to practice medicine and surgery in both Texas and Tennessee.

For more than 10 years, Dr. Gregoric has focused on the surgical treatment of severe heart failure, specifically in the fields of heart transplantation and mechanical assist devices that may be used either to substitute for or to assist the action of the human heart. His clinical experience includes involvement in approximately 400 cardiac and 300 vascular operations annually. Additionally, Dr. Gregoric has assisted or personally performed over 200 heart transplants during his career. Dr. Gregoric’s additional areas of interest include:
• Robotics in cardiovascular surgery
• Minimally invasive cardiac surgery and off pump coronary artery bypass
• Transmyocardial laser revascularization
• Aortic surgery
• Combined surgical and endovascular (Hybrid) procedures

Dr. Gregoric has authored or co-authored numerous scientific publications and is regularly invited to speak both nationally and internationally on his research in these areas:
• Heart transplantation
• Mechanical assist of the failing heart
• The development and clinical trial of the Total Artificial Heart
• The development and clinical trials of the Jarvik 2000
• The development and clinical trials of various artificial heart valves
• The development and clinical trials of HeartMate II
• Development of new generation left ventricular assist devices
• Robotics in cardiovascular surgery
• Transmyocardial laser revascularization (laser cardiac surgery)
• Aortic surgery
• Hybrid vascular surgical procedures

Academically, Dr. Gregoric has been affiliated with the University of Texas Health Science Center-Houston since 1990 where he began as an Instructor in the Department of Internal Medicine. He is currently Clinical Assistant Professor of Surgery in the Department of Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgery at the University. Dr. Gregoric is also an editorial consultant for the Texas Heart Institute Journal and is regularly asked to participate as an editorial consultant for various other scientific publications as well.

Dr. Gregoric is a member of several scientific and medical organizations including:
• American Medical Society
• Harris County Medical Society
• Texas Medical Association
• International Society for Heart Transplantation
• International Society for Minimally Invasive Cardiac Surgery
• American Society for Artificial Internal Organs
• Denton A. Cooley Cardiovascular Surgical Society
• Cooley Hands Society