06/04/2026
For me, cardiac surgery was the perfect marriage of intellectual rigor, procedural precision, patient acuity and, frankly, pure adrenaline.
At the beginning of my training, I envisioned becoming a cardiac surgeon, but realized with time and exposure that I’d actually be able carry an outsized influence by establishing myself as a cardiac anesthesiologist and critical care intensivist.
I’m now fortunate enough to lead the Cardiac Anesthesia Division and Cardiovascular Surgical ICU at one of the busiest quaternary academic centers in the country.
I have always had a romantic view of the medical literature and I subscribe to the belief that perioperative care should be anchored in evidence-based practice. This viewpoint was reinforced by a large network of mentors, including (but not limited to) Drs. Robert Poston, Steve Frank, Christopher Wu, Adam Sapirstein, Nauder Faraday, Daniel Nyhan, Glenn Whitman and Jake Abernathy.
I’m also a strong believer in peer mentorship and owe a great debt to my current colleagues, too many to name individually.
My original story for Enhanced Recovery begins when I was training in the ICU. I recounted a particularly harrowing night in the ICU to my father, a defense contractor and systems engineer. Based on my retelling of events, several patients narrowly avoided injury because of heroics at the bedside. His perspective: heroics in the ICU by the bedside provider should never be necessary, they should be mitigated by system solutions.
Enhanced Recovery is equal parts a philosophy and system solution. It engages the patient and multidisciplinary team (i.e., the Heart Team) in a common mission, and it provides a scaffolding upon which all perioperative care can be hung.
What motivates me now is the explosion of interest in the Enhanced Recovery, the regular and unremitting critique and reappraisal of “best care,” and the opportunity to build a national and international community of patients and providers that continually seek to promote optimal care for cardiac surgical patients.
—Michael C. Grant, MD, MSE
