Prof. Dr. Moritz Wyler

Dr. Moritz C. Wyler von Ballmoos is a Professor of Cardiovascular Surgery at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, the Director of the Structural Heart Program, and the Director of the Minimally Invasive Cardiac Surgery Program at the University Hospital Zurich.

He was born and raised in Bern, Switzerland, where he studied at the University of Bern, graduating with a medical doctorate and a PhD in cardiovascular physiology. He then completed a postdoctoral research fellowship at Harvard Medical School and Children’s Hospital Boston. During his time in Boston, he returned to graduate school and obtained an MSc in Statistics and an MSc in Epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health. Dr. Wyler von Ballmooos completed his General Surgery and Cardiothoracic Surgery training at the Medical College of Wisconsin and Duke University, including advanced fellowship training in minimally invasive cardiac surgery, robotic-assisted surgery, and transcatheter therapies for structural heart disease. Dr. Wyler von Ballmoos is an international contributor and thought leader in the management of valvular heart disease, mitral valve repair, atrial fibrillation, minimally invasive cardiac surgery, transcatheter therapies, and quality improvement. He has built a comprehensive, minimally invasive and robotic cardiac surgery program at the Houston Methodist DeBakey Heart and Vascular Center in Houston, TX. In addition, he has extensive experience with transcatheter technologies and has served as an institutional PI, investigator, and/or reference surgeon for more than 30 clinical trials in the structural heart disease space, including landmark trials for TAVR and TEER. Dr. Wyler von Ballmoos holds multiple leadership positions in national societies. He currently is the Vice Chair of the STS Workforce on Evidence-Based Surgery, the chair of the adult cardiac surgery task force, and serves in numerous other leadership roles for the STS Council on Quality, Research, and Patient Safety that oversees the STS National Database and its Quality efforts. In this capacity, he has been part of the team establishing the STS risk models, the STS quality and performance metrics, and its quality initiatives and has served as a representative to the National Quality Forum. He is also a member of the ACC Cardiac Surgery Leadership Council. Dr. Wyler von Ballmoos has published 7 book chapters and over 120 papers in the peer-reviewed literature, including articles in the NEJM, JAMA, Annals of Internal Medicine, and JTCVS. He is the recipient of multiple awards for his research and teaching efforts, a regularly invited faculty for national and international meetings such as STS, AATS, EACTS, ISMICS, CRT, TCT, and a Fellow of the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology. Dr. Wyler von Ballmoos frequently volunteers his knowledge and experience with early medical technology start-ups and is a board member of the Eurasia Heart Foundation, providing free-of-cost cardiac surgery procedures and education in developing countries across the globe.