Bob Kiaii, BSc, MD, FRCSC, FACS
BIO SKETCH
Dr. Bob Kiaii is a Professor in the Department of Surgery and Chief of the Division ofCardiothoracic Surgery at the University of California Davis in Sacramento, California, USA. He is
the immediate past President of the International Society of Minimally Invasive Cardiothoracic
Surgery.
Dr. Kiaii was a Professor in the Department of Surgery and Chair of the Division of Cardiac
Surgery at the Schulich School of Medicine and Director of the Minimally Invasive RoboticCardiac Surgery Program at the London Health Sciences Centre at Western University inLondon, Ontario. He was the endow Chair of the Ray and Margaret Chair of Surgical Innovation
at Western University in London, Ontario.
Research Applications
He was one of the founding members of Canadian Surgical Advanced Technology and Robotics(CSTAR) of the Lawson Health Research Institute. Despite his extremely busy clinical practice,
Dr. Kiaii’s interest and expertise in minimally invasive robotic cardiac surgery allowed him to be
an active scientist at CSTAR. He participated in collaborative work with engineers at theUniversity of Western Ontario, cardiologists at the London Health Sciences Centre, andscientists at the Robarts Research Institute. Dr. Kiaii is one of the most experienced minimallyinvasive robotic cardiac surgeons nationally and internationally and received a CanadianFoundation for Innovation New Opportunities Fund Grant, which allowed him to do theresearch for performing simultaneous integrated coronary artery revascularization. Dr. Kiaii was
the site principal investigator of numerous multi‐center clinical Trials studying the effectivenessof different transcatheter valves in the treatment of aortic valve stenosis.
Research Applications Despite his extremely busy clinical practice, Dr. Kiaii’s interest andexpertise in minimally invasive robotic cardiac surgery allowed him to be an active scientist atCSTAR. He has been doing collaborative work with engineers at the University of Western
Ontario, cardiologists at the London Health Sciences Centre, and scientists at the Robarts
Research Institute. Dr. Kiaii is one of the most experienced minimally invasive robotic cardiac
surgeons nationally and internationally. He received a Canadian Foundation for Innovation New
Opportunities Fund Grant, which allowed him to do the research for performing simultaneous
integrated coronary artery revascularization.
Notable Achievements
Dr. Kiaii has performed ground‐breaking minimally invasive robotic‐assisted cardiac procedures
including the first North American simultaneous integrated coronary artery revascularization
procedure on September 1, 2004. Since then, he has had the most experience and has
performed the largest series of simultaneous integrated coronary artery revascularizations in
the world. He also performed the first Canadian totally endoscopic coronary artery bypass
grafting on the beating heart using the da Vinci® Robotic System, the first Canadian robotic‐
assisted multi‐vessel coronary artery bypass, and the world’s first robotic‐assisted left atrial

appendage ligation for atrial fibrillation. In 2011, Dr. Kiaii performed the world’s first aortic
valve bypass using the Correx apical conduit and the world’s first repair of a perforation of theright atrium using the da Vinci® Robotic System. Dr. Bob Kiaii and his team at LHSC were also
the first to broadcast a real‐time cardiac surgical procedure to surgeons in Bucaramanga,Colombia in June 2011. In 2014 and 2015, he was part of the heart team that utilized a novel
self‐expanding transcatheter heart valve (Symetis Accurate Valve) for the first time in North
America. In 2018, he performed the world’s first Robotic‐assisted aortic valve replacement for
aortic valve stenosis. In 2020 he developed the robotic valvular program in Sacramento and theteam performed the first robotic mitral valve procedure in Northern California.
His primary interests continue to remain minimally invasive, Robotic‐assisted and transcatheter
cardiac surgical procedures including coronary artery revascularization, mitral and aortic valve
procedures, and surgical treatment of atrial fibrillation. He has served on numerous scientificadvisory boards, and is a regular reviewer of grant submissions and journal articles as an expert
in the field of minimally invasive surgery. His bibliography includes 8 book chapters, 189 peer‐
reviewed papers, 136 published abstracts, and more than 191 guest lectures.