Baptist Health Heart & Vascular Care is Building the Future of Cardiovascular Care: Scale, Specialization, and Innovation
Heart disease remains the leading cause of death in the United States, but how — and where — it is treated is changing rapidly. Across South Florida, Baptist Health Heart & Vascular Care is redefining cardiovascular care by pairing scale with specialization and innovation with outcomes.
Over the past year, the organization has accelerated growth across every dimension: physician recruitment, advanced surgical capabilities, multidisciplinary disease centers and organization-wide integration. The result is a cardiovascular enterprise designed not around isolated procedures, but around the full continuum of care.
“We’re building a model that allows physicians to practice at the top of their license while giving patients access to the right expertise at exactly the right time,” said Tom Nguyen, M.D., chief medical executive of Baptist Health Heart & Vascular Care, director of minimally invasive surgery, Barry T. Katzen Endowed Chair at Baptist Health Miami Cardiac & Vascular Institute, and chair and professor of the Department of Cardiovascular Sciences at Florida International University Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine. “That’s how you scale excellence without compromising quality.”
Strategic Recruitment Driving Subspecialty Depth
A cornerstone of Baptist Health’s recent success has been the intentional recruitment of cardiologists, cardiac surgeons and vascular specialists, strengthening subspecialty depth across the organization.
New leadership and faculty-level physicians have joined in cardiac surgery, vascular surgery, electrophysiology, heart failure and structural heart care, expanding both access and the complexity of care across Broward, Miami-Dade, Palm Beach, and Monroe counties. This includes the integration of vascular surgery and the addition of nationally and internationally recognized surgeons with deep expertise in robotic, minimally invasive and complex aortic procedures.
“This isn’t growth for growth’s sake,” Dr. Nguyen said. “Every recruit is intentional — focused on expanding capabilities, improving outcomes and supporting a true team-based approach.”
Robotic Heart & Vascular Surgery: From Program to Platform
Baptist Health’s robotic heart and vascular surgery program has moved from early adoption to statewide leadership. In fiscal year 2025 alone, the organization completed more than 100 robotic cardiac procedures, including coronary bypass and mitral valve repair, placing it among the highest-volume robotic cardiac surgery programs in Florida.
The program recently expanded with the first robotic cardiac surgery performed at Boca Raton Regional Hospital, underscoring an organization-wide commitment to advanced, minimally invasive care.
Robotic approaches offer patients smaller incisions, faster recovery and reduced length of stay while enabling surgeons to perform complex procedures with exceptional precision.
“Robotics are not a technology experiment here — they’re embedded into how we deliver care,” Dr. Nguyen said. “And we’re just getting started.”
Center for Aortic Care: Comprehensive, Multidisciplinary, Always On
One of the most significant milestones of the year was the launch of the Center for Aortic Care, a fully integrated program designed to treat all 11 segments of the aorta, from routine surveillance to the most complex emergent cases.
Staffed by cardiac surgeons, vascular surgeons, interventionalists, imaging specialists and critical care teams, the Center provides 24/7 coverage for patients with aneurysms, dissections and complex aortic disease. Advanced techniques — including normothermic total arch replacement and first-in-human endovascular aortic repairs — are now part of the clinical offering.
“This level of coordination and expertise is rare,” Dr. Nguyen said. “It allows us to manage aortic disease comprehensively, not episodically.”
Heart Valves, Structural Heart and Disease-Centered Care
The heart valve program continues to expand across surgical and transcatheter therapies, supported by strong volumes in transcatheter aortic valve replacement, transcatheter edge-to-edge repair and complex valve repair. Multidisciplinary heart teams ensure patients are evaluated collaboratively, matching each individual to the most appropriate intervention.
These programs operate within Baptist Health’s broader disease-center model, which organizes care around conditions rather than departments. Centers focused on aortic disease, heart rhythm, heart failure, coronary disease and vascular disease enable seamless collaboration, consistent care pathways and shared accountability for outcomes.
A System Built for What’s Next
Underpinning these clinical advances is an enterprise-wide strategy focused on integration, data-driven decision-making and innovation. Baptist Health Heart & Vascular Care maintains strong quality outcomes, growing procedural volumes and one of the most active cardiovascular research enterprises in the region.
“Healthcare is changing fast,” Dr. Nguyen said. “Our responsibility is to evolve just as quickly, while staying grounded in what matters most: patient outcomes, physician collaboration and compassionate care.”
To explore Baptist Health Heart & Vascular Care’s full scope of programs, visit BaptistHealth.net/Heart.
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