Dr. William E. Cohn

William E. Cohn, M.D. is Director, Minimally Invasive Surgical Technology, Texas Heart Institute, St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital.
 
Billy is a multi-talented cardiovascular surgeon at the Texas Heart Institute of Houston and is a nationally recognized leader in the research, development, and implantation of mechanical pumps to support the failing heart and heart transplantation.
 
On March 10th, 2011, Dr. William E. Cohn and Dr. Bud Frazier implanted the world’s first continuous-flow artificial heart in a human patient, a significant advance that promises a smaller and much more durable alternative to existing artificial hearts. They first began building prototypes of the continuous flow artificial heart five years ago.
 
Billy earned his medical degree from Baylor College of Medicine and trained with the legendary Dr. Michael DeBakey. Prior to his arrival at the Texas Heart Institute, he was faculty at the Harvard Medical School for 11 years and has over 50 US patents for medical devices which help surgeons operate on a beating heart, a task thought to be impossible for many years. His Cohn Cardiac Stabilizer was licensed by Genzyme Surgical and has been used in over 200,000 off-pump coronary artery bypasses.
 
In addition to his busy surgical practice, Billy is the founder of multiple venture capital-backed medical device companies, including Apaxis Medical, a Houston-based medical device company focused on LVAD implantation. He has been honored as the Distinguished Inventor of the Year by the Intellectual Property Owners Association and has published extensively in peer reviewed journals and textbooks, serves on several editorial boards. and is an ad hoc reviewer for many medical journals.
 
His patents include Biological fluid warmer, Surgical coring system, Automated surgical connector, Method and apparatus for stabilization and positioning during surgery, Method and apparatus for resecting and replacing an aortic valve, Catheter apparatus and methodology for generating a fistula on-demand between closely associated blood vessels at a pre-chosen anatomic site in-vivo, Apparatus and method for the ligation of tissue, Method for retracting tissue during surgery, Pericardial retractor, Method and apparatus for reducing mitral regurgitation, Delivery tool for cardiac support device, and Method and apparatus for resecting and replacing an aortic valve.
 
Watch THI First in Texas to Offer New Cardiology Procedure to Eliminate a Major Cause of Heart-Related Stroke. Read No Pulse: How Doctors Reinvented The Human Heart and Pluromed Adds Dr. William E. Cohn to Board of Directors. Visit his Facebook page. Read his LinkedIn profile.