Harold G. Roberts, Jr., MD is an Associate Professor of Surgery in Cardiac Surgery at Washington University. After completing a residency in general surgery at the University of Maryland in 1984, he received his training in cardiothoracic surgery at the University of Illinois in Chicago, followed by a fellowship at Beth Israel in Boston in 1990. Over the next 20 years, he practiced cardiac, thoracic, and vascular surgery in private practice in South Florida. Through rigorous pursuit of training with pioneers in the field, meetings and courses, he gained expertise in complex mitral reconstruction, surgical ablation for atrial fibrillation, and robotic endoscopic valve surgery, as well as other types of minimally invasive valve surgery. He was awarded a US patent in 2007 for a 3-D mitral annuloplasty ring, and in 2012, he did the first transcatheter aortic valve replacement in Broward County at the Holy Cross Hospital in Ft. Lauderdale. In 2013, Dr. Roberts was the first to publish a modification of the right atrial lesion set used in the Cox Maze IV that has subsequently been adopted at heart centers world-wide.
He began his career in academic cardiac surgery when he became an assistant professor at West Virginia University in 2017, and was promoted to associate professor in 2021. During this time, he wrote numerous publications and presented at several national meetings. He joined the American Association of Thoracic Surgeons in 2019. A member since 1994, Dr. Roberts has served in leadership positions of the Society of Thoracic Surgeons, including the Workforce on Practice Management and the Guidelines Committee for Surgical Ablation of Atrial Fibrillation. He has furthered the education of medical students and residents by teaching cardiovascular and thoracic surgery skills and grand rounds presentations, and at the national level with the STS University courses.
Dr. Roberts joined the faculty of cardiothoracic surgery at Washington University School of Medicine as an associate professor in August 2021. His current primary practice interests include valve surgery, coronary revascularization, and the surgical treatment of atrial fibrillation.
To refer a patient to Dr. Roberts or the team at the Washington University and Barnes-Jewish Heart and Vascular Center, call 314.362.7431.