Professor Francesco Musumeci to join UPMC-ISMETT Heart Center

The goal of ISMETT is to promote a momentous growth of its Heart Center, committing to provide timely responses to the patients’ needs while maintaining its outstanding standards of quality care. This strategy translates into providing patients with highly professional care with state-of-the-art technology.

In this perspective, the arrival of Prof. Francesco Musumeci as Cardiac Surgery Senior Consultant is of particular relevance. In addition to supporting surgical activity, Prof. Musumeci will play a key role training physicians and designing an integrated network with the cardiology departments (known as the intra-hospital Heart Team). The idea is to optimize the diagnostic and therapeutic pathway of patients providing an even more comprehensive and effective care.

Dr. Musumeci specialized in General and Cardiac Surgery and trained in London (Hospital for Sick Children, National Heart Hospital, Brompton Hospital, and Harefield Hospital) and Australia (Royal Children’s Hospital) working alongside pioneers of cardiac surgery such as Dr. Donald Ross and Prof. Magdi Yacoub.

In 1991, he was appointed Head of Cardiac Surgery at the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff, where he established the Pediatric Cardiac Surgery Service. In 1998, Prof. Musumeci was appointed director of Cardiac Surgery and Transplantation at San Camillo Hospital in Rome where he developed a program of mini-invasive cardiac, robotics, and trans-catheter surgery.

“It is an honor to welcome Francesco Musumeci to our team and starting such a valuable collaboration,” said Dr. Michele Pilato, Director of the ISMETT Heart Center. “Thanks to his ability to generate quality and innovation, he will make a significant contribution to the growth of our heart program. As a result of the partnership with UPMC, ISMETT benefits from an ongoing cultural and scientific exchange with one of the most important American heart centers. The arrival of Prof. Musumeci will enable us to offer ever higher standards of care to our patients.”

Prof. Francesco Musumeci added: “In Italy, over 50,000 cardiovascular procedures are performed every year. The good news is that the mortality rate has been progressively reducing, despite more and more elderly patients are undergoing heart surgery, with a higher risk due to associated diseases. This was made possible by the evolution and improvement of surgical techniques and methods of care. Investing in continuous training, in quality and innovation is the key to ensuring excellence in patient care.

Today, we are looking more and more at a personalization medicine, targeting therapeutic choices in order to offer patients the most appropriate treatment and the best outcomes. I greeted with enthusiasm the proposal to join ISMETT and offer my contribution to an already high level of training for the benefit of staff but also of the entire community. The openness to innovation has always characterized my clinical and training career. It’s an honor for me to join ISMETT, and a unique opportunity to return to Sicily in a highly qualified context sharing my experience gained in many years of work in Italy and abroad.”