Curtis named to LeRoss Professorship

Dr. Paul G. Ramsey, vice president for medical affairs and dean of the School of Medicine, has named Dr. William Curtis the holder of the Lester and Connie LeRoss Endowed Professorship in Cardiovascular Surgery.

Curtis, an assistant professor of surgery, joined the UW Medical Center’s heart failure cardiology team in 1997. He is an expert in techniques for implanting ventricle assist devices that take over the pumping function of a person’s failing heart until a donor heart becomes available for transplant.

William Curtis

In April, Curtis began implanting the newest of such devices, which allow patients who receive them to wait for their heart transplantation at home, instead of being confined to the hospital. In addition, he is pioneering the use of techniques such as transmyocardial revascularization, which utilizes lasers to create transmyocardial perfusion channels to areas of the heart that are not revascualrized by bypass surgery.

Curtis studied cardiac surgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital, where he received a research award for work demonstrating gene expression that occurs in heart muscle cells in response to reperfusion injury during cardiopulmonary bypass. Among his current research projects is the assessment of changes in heart muscle cells during the interval between implantation of ventricle assist devices and the time of transplant surgery.

As a resident, Curtis trained in England under John Wallwork, director of one of the largest heart transplantation programs in the world, and in Australia under Mark O’Brien, a world leader in the use of aortic grafts for replacement of the aortic root.

Curtis received a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Creighton University in Nebraska in 1984 and graduated from the University of Colorado medical school in 1988.

Lester LeRoss and his wife Connie donated $500,000 to the medical school to establish the endowed professorship in appreciation for care he received at UW Medical Center. LeRoss underwent heart transplant surgery in 1997. Curtis was on the team that performed the operation. ¶

Will Morton