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STS Award recognizes groundbreaking scientific contributions that advance cardiothoracic surgery

Cardiothoracic surgeon Michael J. Mack, MD, was given the Earl Bakken Scientific Award at The Society of Thoracic Surgeons’ Annual Meeting in 2026 in New Orleans today, recognizing a career defined by transformative leadership, surgical innovation, and a lasting impact on cardiovascular medicine.

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Dr. Mack is internationally renowned for his pioneering contributions to minimally invasive cardiac surgery and valvular heart disease therapies, particularly transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR). Over more than four decades in practice, he has played a central role in reshaping the treatment of complex cardiovascular disease by bridging the disciplines of cardiac surgery and interventional cardiology.

“Dr. Michael Mack’s career exemplifies visionary leadership and collaborative innovation,” said STS President Joseph F. Sabik III, MD. “His influence extends far beyond the operating room—through landmark clinical trials, guideline development, and the ‘heart team’ model that has become the standard of care worldwide. His work has fundamentally changed how we treat patients with structural heart disease.”

A key hallmark of Dr. Mack’s career has been his leadership in pivotal clinical trials that have redefined cardiovascular care. He played critical roles in the SYNTAX Trial, which compared percutaneous coronary intervention with coronary artery bypass grafting in patients with complex coronary artery disease, and the PARTNER Trials, which established the safety and efficacy of TAVR and accelerated its adoption into mainstream practice. These studies helped shape contemporary guidelines and expanded life-saving treatment options for patients previously considered inoperable or high risk.

Dr. Mack has authored or co-authored more than 400 peer-reviewed journal articles and numerous book chapters, with scholarship spanning coronary artery bypass surgery, transcatheter valve therapies, minimally invasive surgical techniques, outcomes research, and clinical practice guideline development. His work includes major contributions to expert consensus documents endorsed by leading cardiovascular societies and the development of risk models used widely in clinical decision-making.

Currently, he serves as Medical Director of Cardiovascular Surgery for Baylor Scott & White Health and Chairman of the Baylor Plano Research Center at The Heart Hospital Baylor Plano in Texas. He is also principal investigator for the Baylor Core Clinical Center of the National Institutes of Health–funded Cardiothoracic Surgical Network (CTSN), awarded in 2013, supporting large-scale, multicenter clinical research in cardiac surgery.

Throughout his career, Dr. Mack has balanced high-volume clinical practice with academic leadership. He has performed thousands of cardiac operations, with well over 4,000 involving heart valve procedures, and has been a global advocate for less invasive approaches that improve recovery and outcomes for patients.

In addition to his clinical and scientific achievements, he has held numerous leadership roles in professional societies. He served as STS president in 2011 and is a past president of The Thoracic Surgery Foundation (formerly the Thoracic Surgery Foundation for Research and Education), the Southern Thoracic Surgical Association, and the International Society for Minimally Invasive Cardiothoracic Surgery. He has also served on the American College of Cardiology Foundation Board of Trustees and multiple ACC, STS, and FDA committees.

This award recognizes Dr. Mack’s profound and enduring influence on cardiothoracic surgery, his role in advancing collaborative, evidence-based care, and his unwavering commitment to innovation. His career stands as a testament to how collaboration, rigorous science, and patient-centered thinking can redefine an entire field.

The Earl Bakken Scientific Achievement Award was established in 1999 through a grant from Medtronic, Inc. to honor individuals who have made outstanding scientific contributions that have enhanced the practice of cardiothoracic surgery and patient quality of life. The award was named for Medtronic co-founder Earl Bakken. Among numerous other achievements, Bakken developed the first wearable artificial pacemaker.

During the Airway Issues session on Friday, Jan. 30 at 1:30 p.m., Joseph Nellis, MD, of Duke University Medical Center, will present the Richard E. Clark Memorial Paper, Impact of Preoperative Tracheostomy on Outcomes Following Congenital Cardiac Surgery: A Study of the STS Congenital Heart Surgery Database, at STS 2026. In this presentation, Dr. Nellis will examine how preoperative tracheostomy affects outcomes following congenital cardiac surgery, an area with limited prior data despite longstanding concerns about risk in this population.

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Congenital cardiac surgery patients with preoperative tracheostomy represent a small but increasingly recognized group with complex medical needs. To better understand how tracheostomy status influences surgical outcomes, Dr. Nellis and colleagues analyzed national registry data spanning a decade of congenital cardiac operations, comparing patients with preoperative tracheostomy to those without this airway history.

Overall, patients with preoperative tracheostomy experienced higher rates of postoperative complications, readmissions, and mortality compared with those without tracheostomy. Even after accounting for differences in baseline risk, preoperative tracheostomy remained associated with an increased likelihood of infection-related complications and early mortality, though it was not linked to longer hospital stays or higher overall morbidity.

In his presentation, Dr. Nellis will outline the implications these findings inform risk stratification and surgical planning for children with complex airway and cardiac disease. He emphasizes that while preoperative tracheostomy identifies a higher-risk patient population, it should not, by itself, exclude patients from consideration for definitive congenital cardiac surgery.
 

As part of the “Research in Focus: Landmark Science & Technology” session on day one of the STS meeting, Andrew Feczko, MD, of Cleveland Clinic presented the STS Landmark paper titled Lung Cancer Resection Longitudinal Risk Model. In his presentation, Dr. Feczko described the development and validation of a robust, data-driven model designed to predict long-term survival following curative-intent lung cancer resection—an area of growing importance as survival improves and quality benchmarking extends beyond perioperative outcomes.

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Drawing on the Society of Thoracic Surgeons General Thoracic Surgery Database, the investigators analyzed outcomes from a large, contemporary cohort of adults who underwent lung cancer resection. By linking STS data with national mortality sources, the team was able to assess survival over an extended follow-up period and construct individualized risk predictions across pathologic stages. Patients were divided into derivation and validation cohorts to ensure the model’s generalizability, and advanced statistical techniques were used to account for differences in risk over time.

The resulting longitudinal risk model demonstrated strong discrimination and excellent calibration, accurately aligning predicted survival with observed outcomes across multiple time points and disease stages. Risk scores were closely associated with long-term survival, effectively stratifying patients into distinct prognostic groups. Importantly, the model’s performance improved further when postoperative complications were incorporated, highlighting the lasting impact of perioperative events on long-term outcomes.

Dr. Feczko emphasized that this work addressed a critical gap in thoracic surgery by extending risk assessment beyond short-term mortality. As the field increasingly focuses on survivorship, quality improvement, and informed shared decision-making, the availability of validated long-term survival models represents a significant advance.

With this study, the STS General Thoracic Surgery Database now offers thoracic surgeons both short- and long-term risk prediction tools to support self-evaluation, programmatic quality improvement, and future research—reinforcing its role as the authoritative national resource for thoracic surgical outcomes.