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Battle of the Billboards

Cardiac surgery pioneer Joseph Lamelas, M.D., returned to Miami to join the Miller School and UHealth

It was impossible to drive in Miami earlier this year without seeing a confident-looking, arms-crossed figure wearing blue scrubs staring down at you from billboards on every highway. That figure was Joseph Lamelas, M.D., an internationally recognized cardiac surgeon. A local legend for pioneering “The Miami Method” of minimally invasive approaches to cardiac surgery, Dr. Lamelas had just returned to South Florida following a two-year stint in Houston to join UHealth – the University of Miami Health System as chief of cardiothoracic surgery and professor of surgery at the Miller School of Medicine.

“Having Dr. Lamelas as our chief of cardiothoracic surgery solidifies UHealth as the preeminent center for cardiovascular disease in South Florida, and one of the truly elite institutions in the country,” said UHealth CEO Edward Abraham, M.D.

Miami is a very competitive health care market, and no sooner had Dr. Lamelas’s ads run their course than other local institutions began touting their own cardiac capabilities. But Dr. Lamelas is scheduled for a return engagement — and the battle of the billboards continues.

UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI MEDICINE
FALL 2019