Professor David McGiffin

CardioRegen investigator

The Alfred Hospital, Monash University.

Prof David McGiffin is a cardiothoracic surgeon who trained in Brisbane, after which he undertook a fellowship at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) in the United States as a Fulbright scholar. He returned to Australia in 1986 where he performed adult and paediatric cardiac surgery and commenced the Queensland Heart Transplant Program.  Professor McGiffin returned to the United States in 1993 to a faculty position at UAB, where he became Albert D. Pacifico Professor of Cardiovascular Surgery.  Prof McGiffin performed the full range of adult cardiac surgery, heart and lung transplantation, and paediatric heart transplantation, and also commenced the UAB pulmonary endarterectomy program for chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension.  Prof McGiffin returned to Australia in 2013 to be Director of Cardiothoracic Surgery at The Alfred in Melbourne. Prof McGiffin’s research while at UAB was centred on outcomes research, particularly for transplantation, and also translational research into oxidative stress in patients with chronic mitral regurgitation.  On returning to Australia, his research area has focused on hypothermic ex vivo perfusion of donor hearts to substantially extend the ischaemic time without the penalty of primary graft dysfunction. This research is based on a large animal model with orthotopic transplantation and has translated into a planned Australian clinical trial of hypothermic perfusion for human donor hearts, potentially providing more hearts for transplantation. Prof McGiffin is co-principal investigator on this trial. The other area of his research is understanding the mechanisms of driveline infection after ventricular assist device implantation and development of strategies to mitigate infection.

David's publications