AATS ERAS® Cardiac Conclave: Turn-Key Order Sets – Implementation of ERAS

Dr. V. Seenu Reddy graduated magna cum laude from Amherst College and obtained his Medical Degree with Honors from The University of Alabama. He completed a residency in General Surgery and a Research Fellowship in Cardiac Surgery at Vanderbilt University. His Cardiothoracic training was at Emory University with additional expertise in Endovascular and Minimally Invasive Surgery. Dr. Reddy received an MBA with Honors from Vanderbilt University Owen School of Management.  He was previously on the faculty of the University of TX San Antonio as Dir. of Emerging Technology, Dir. of Thoracic Aortic Surgery and Associate Prof of Surgery. He is Board Certified in Surgery and Thoracic Surgery.  In the community, Dr. Reddy is active with the American Heart Association, served as Board Chair and Past President and of the Nashville Academy of Med, and is a past President of the Nashville Surgical Society. He also serves his specialty through Task Forces in the Southern Thoracic Surgical Association, and Society of Thoracic Surgeons and the American Association of Thoracic Surgery.  He has previously served as Clinical Associate Professor of Surgery at Vanderbilt and continues to serve on the faculty for their Perfusion School.  He is a Fellow in the American College of Surgeons and American College of Cardiology. Dr. Reddy is engaged in research and has over 12 book chapters, over 30 abstracts and 45 publications in peer reviewed journals.  He is a reviewer for The Annals of Thoracic Surgery & JTCVS.  He is a consultant to a variety of startup companies and works with Harpeth Capital, Jumpstart and FCA Venture Partners in Nashville. He is on the Memorial Foundation Board.  At TriStar Centennial he serves as co-Director of the Structural Heart Program and Director of Cardiac Surgical Outreach the Medical Executive Committee.  He is a National Medical Director for HCA’s Cardiovascular Service Line.  Dr. Reddy is married and has two children and enjoys boating, hiking and golf.

Dr. Arora pursued his Medical Doctorate from the University of Toronto in 1996. His commitment to his field led him to Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he completed his Cardiac Surgery Residency. It was during this time that he demonstrated his exceptional dedication by also completing a Doctorate of Philosophy in the Department of Anatomy/Neurobiology in the field of neurocardiology. His commitment to learning and pushing the boundaries of his field continued with two further years of training at the University of Calgary, in Calgary, Alberta, where he became the first Cardiac Surgeon in Canada to also complete a fellowship in Critical Care Medicine in 2006.

In 2022, Dr. Arora joined the Division of Cardiac Surgery in the Harrington Heart Vascular Institute (HHVI) at the University Hospitals as the Director of Perioperative and Cardiac Critical Care. He is presently a clinical professor at Case Western Reserve University, holds Dr. Alan H. Markowitz, MD, endowed Chair for Cardiac Surgery at University Hospitals. He is also the director of clinical research for the cardiac surgery division with the Harrington HV. His personal research interests have concentrated on enhancing the recovery and care of critically ill cardiac patients. He has a specific focus on delirium and frailty in older adults undergoing cardiovascular surgery. He has received funding from the CIHR, HSFC and the Canadian Frailty Network. Dr. Arora has over 290 peer-reviewed manuscripts and book chapters and is an internationally invited speaker for his team’s clinical and research endeavours.

Daniel T. Engelman, MD is the Medical Director of the Cardiac Surgical Critical Care Unit & Inpatient Surgical Services at Baystate Health, in Springfield, MA and Professor of Surgery and Healthcare Delivery & Population Sciences at UMass Chan Medical School-Baystate. Dr. Engelman is the founder and President of the Enhanced Recovery After Cardiac Surgery (ERAS® Cardiac) International Society, with a mission to standardize evidence based best practices in perioperative care. In 2019, he led an international team to write the first consensus guidelines for cardiac surgical perioperative care in Jama Surgery.  An updated expert consensus manuscript, officially endorsed by the Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS), was published in the Annals of Thoracic Surgery and presented at the STS Annual Meeting in January 2024.

Dr. Engelman is the Senior Editor for Perioperative Care for the Annals of Thoracic Surgery and serves on the Editorial Board of the Journal Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery. He has over 120 peer-reviewed publications and is the study Steering Committee Chair for the Phase 3 Artemis Trial and the study Principal Investigator for the phase 2 RIP1 Trial for the prevention of postoperative acute kidney injury. He also participates in the Annual Meeting Program Committees for the Society of Thoracic Surgeons and the American Association for Thoracic Surgery.

He organizes an Annual ERAS Cardiac Summit at the American Association for Thoracic Surgery’s Annual Meeting and similar sessions at the STS and EACTS. Dr. Engelman is an international expert in perioperative critical care medicine, multimodal analgesia, AKI and SSI prevention, and enhanced recovery after cardiac surgery.

Dr. Hirji is a clinical fellow in the Joint 4/3 General and Cardiothoracic Surgery Program at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School. 

Dr. Gregory is a cardiovascular anesthesiologist and assistant professor in the Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine, and Libin Cardiovascular Institute, at the Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary. After completion of his BSc at Cornell University (2002), he obtained his medical degree (2007), FRCPC training in anesthesiology (2012) at the University of Calgary, and fellowship in cardiothoracic anesthesiology at the University of Pennsylvania (2013).  Institutional academic roles include Director of Cardiovascular Anesthesiology Research, Clinical Lead for Thoracic Aortic Surgery, as well as Program Supervisor for both the University of Calgary Cardiovascular Anesthesia and Perioperative Ultrasound Fellowship Programs.  Research interests include enhanced recovery, patient reported outcomes, patient blood management, and aortic biomechanics.  He has been involved in several multi-center clinical trials developed through the Peri-operative Anesthesiology Clinical Trials (PACT) and Cardio-Link Clinical Trials groups. Memberships include both the Society of Cardiovascular Anesthesiologists’ (SCA) and Canadian Anesthesiologoists’ Society (CAS), as well as an Executive Board Member of the ERAS Cardiac Society.