Michele De Bonis

Michele De Bonis is an Associate Professor of Cardiac Surgery at the Medical School of Vita-Salute San Raffaele University in Milan, Italy. He serves as Chief of Cardiac Surgery Innovation and Research at San Raffaele University Hospital, Director of the Training School in Cardiac Surgery, and Head of the Heart Failure Surgery Unit and Mechanical Circulatory Support Programme. He holds visiting professorships at Plymouth NHS Trust (UK) and Cape Town University (South Africa). His clinical expertise includes mitral/tricuspid valve repair, mechanical circulatory support (LVAD/ECMO), and transcatheter interventions. He has pioneered the Star-Tric System for tricuspid regurgitation and is a certified proctor for HeartMate devices.

Education: MD cum laude from Rome’s Catholic University (1993), postgraduate training in Belgium/UK, and a fellowship in mechanical support at Berlin’s German Heart Institute. He is a Fellow of the American Heart Association (FAHA) and European Society of Cardiology (FESC).

Research focuses on valvular heart disease and mechanical circulatory support, with over 466 publications (H-index>20, 3000+ citations). He co-authored European guidelines on valvular disease and infective endocarditis. Teaching roles include courses at the European School for Cardiothoracic Surgery and mentorship of over 20 theses. He leads funded projects like the €980k PNRR-MAD-2022 lung frailty study and the €500k ECMO outcomes project.

Awards include the 2005 Ciociaria Medicine Prize and 1995 Petrone Award. He chairs EACTS task forces and serves on international committees for the American Heart Association and European Society of Cardiology.