About Dr. Hartmuth Bittner

The president and founder of the Gulf Coast Cardiothoracic Surgery Institute in Tampa, Florida, Dr. Hartmuth Bittner has been working in the medical field for over three decades. One of the top heart surgeons in the United States, Dr. Hartmuth Bittner performs minimally invasive procedures on high-risk and advanced-stage patients suffering from varying cardiothoracic disease. These procedures include coronary bypasses, heart and lung transplantations, and advanced valve repair and replacement surgeries including catheter-based aortic and mitral valve interventions..

In addition to his work at the Gulf Coast Cardiothoracic Surgery Institute, Dr. Bittner also serves as an associate professor of surgery in the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center. Prior to this, he taught cardiac surgery at the University of Leipzig, where he earned his PhD and became the Full professor and Endowed Chair of Clinical and Experimental Thoracic Organ Transplantation; served as the assistant professor of cardiovascular and thoracic surgery at the University of Minnesota; and was a research fellow in the transplantation lab at Duke University where he accomplished his general surgery residency and cardiothoracic fellowship training . He held these academic appointments concurrently with his clinical roles.

Throughout his career, Dr. Bittner has balanced both his academic and clinical roles with research in the field. Not only has he been associated with hundreds of research abstracts, but he was the primary and co-author of numerous publications. Dr. Bittner also spoke at dozens of domestic and international professional events, sharing information on hot topics such as monitoring therapeutic drugs with biomarkers and different thoracic transplantation donor options. He made major contributions to the field of genetically altered cardiac performance investigating the myocardial function in mice hearts overexpressing beta-adrenergic receptors.