Congratulations to Drs. Thomas M. Egan and Michael R. Mill, who are both listed in the 2014 “Best Doctors in America” database. “Best Doctors” lists outstanding physicians who have been nominated for inclusion by their peers. Dr. Egan and Dr. Mill, both professors of surgery in the UNC Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, are among 251 doctors at UNC who are listed this year.
Dr. Egan, a thoracic surgeon, is internationally known for his research on lung transplantation. He joined the UNC faculty in 1989 and began its lung transplant program. He is principal investigator of a large, NIH-funded clinical trial to study assessment and transplantation of lungs from victims of sudden death (More and Better Lungs: Ex-Vivo Perfusion of Lungs from Non-Heart-Beating Donors, grant 1 UM1 HL113115-01A1). Dr. Egan has shown that lungs are still viable after circulation stops because lung cells obtain oxygen after death from air in the air sacs and airways (other organs require blood circulation to obtain oxygen). If successful, his project could greatly increase the number of lungs available for transplant. He led the group that developed a 2005 change in U.S. allocation policy for lung transplants that allocates donor lungs based primarily on estimates of survival probability; this change has been credited with saving lives and improving efficiency. He no longer performs surgery due to a physical disability but is available for second opinions or consultation.
Dr. Mill, a congenital cardiac surgeon, is director of pediatric cardiac surgery at UNC and started the heart transplant program at UNC after his arrival in 1988. He performed both the first heart-lung transplant and the first pediatric heart-lung transplant in North Carolina. He has served as chief of the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery at UNC, director of the UNC Comprehensive Transplant Center, and program director of the UNC Cardiothoracic Surgery Residency Program, which trains future surgeons. He has studied clinical outcomes of transplantation and also pulmonary blood flow physiology in congenital heart disease. He has recently been co-investigator on a study funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Improving patient safety in a pediatric service line (grant 05-R18 H5019636-01-02). His clinical interests include neonatal and pediatric heart surgery, pediatric and adult heart and heart-lung transplantation, complex valve repairs, mechanical cardiac assist devices, and surgery for end-stage heart failure.
– Margaret Alford Cloud, UNC Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, mcloud@med.unc.edu