James L. Cox

Biography

 Dr. Cox is a world-renowned cardiothoracic surgeon. His seminal work treating cardiac arrhythmias led to the development of the Cox-Maze procedure for patients with atrial fibrillation. He is also the inventor of the Medtronic 3f® tissue heart valve. Dr. Cox served as the Chief of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri and was named Emeritus Evarts A. Graham Professor of Surgery. He previously served as an Associate Professor of Surgery at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina and Professor and Chair of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington, D.C. In addition, Dr. Cox served as the 81st president of The American Association for Thoracic Surgery, editor of the seminars in Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, founded and was editor of Operative Techniques in Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery and a member of the editorial board of more than 20 scientific medical journals. He is also a founding member of the Board of Directors of CTSNet, founding member of the Board of Directors of the Thoracic Surgery Foundation for Research and Education, a past director of the American Board of Thoracic Surgery, as well as past chairman of the Residency Review Committee for Thoracic Surgery. Dr. Cox did his undergraduate work at the University of Mississippi in Oxford, Mississippi and attended medical school at the University of Tennessee in Memphis. During his undergraduate studies, Dr. Cox had the opportunity to sign with the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team but thankfully chose medicine instead.

Research Interest

His research interests in the field of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery.