A Life of Teaching: Dr. Hossein Almassi Celebrates 40 Years of Mentorship and Discovery at MCW

When Hossein Almassi, MD, professor of surgery and cardiology in the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery and chief of cardiothoracic surgery at the Zablocki VA Medical Center, arrived at MCW in the late 1980s for a two-year fellowship in cardiothoracic surgery, he thought it would be a brief stop before moving on somewhere else.

Forty years later, he is still here.

Dr. Almassi trained in general surgery in Chicago before coming to MCW. At the time, the college was a small school without much surrounding infrastructure, sharing space with the county hospital. What kept him from leaving, he said, was the environment itself.

"It was a very collegial, friendly and supportive environment," Dr. Almassi said. "That allowed people like me to start working and also advance in terms of their expertise, learning new stuff and also to be involved with teaching and training of the next generation."

Ask him what he enjoys most about the work, and his answer comes without hesitation: teaching.

Dr. Almassi in a lab session with residents.

"Patient care is patient care. That's important," he said. "But being involved with the younger generation, teaching and training them, it just gives me self-satisfaction."

That passion is rooted in his own experience as a trainee. "I was the beneficiary of some great and selfless mentors and role models," he said. "Everybody thinks that they did it [on their own]. No, people help us to get to where we are. I owe it to them to help the next generation."

That philosophy has earned him recognition throughout the medical school, including the MCW Outstanding Medical Student Teacher award for eleven consecutive years, from 2008 to 2019. In 2013, he received the T. Michael Bolger Standing Ovation Award in recognition of excellence in service to MCW. The following year, he was named Cardiothoracic Surgery Resident Teacher of the Year and inducted as an honorary member of the MCW chapter of Alpha Omega Alpha. In both 2015 and 2019, medical students selected him to receive the Department of Surgery's Golden Cane Award for student teaching.

Pictured left: Dr. Almassi with graduating fellows.

That dedication to teaching has stayed with the students he trained long after they left MCW. In June 2024, Dr. Almassi received an email from Max Goodman, MD, MS, a member of MCW's graduating class that year, who had gone on to match into a family medicine residency at the University of Michigan.

"Your dedication, expertise and unwavering commitment to teaching have had a profound impact on my growth as a medical student," Goodman wrote. "You have not only taught me the intricacies of medicine but also the importance of empathy, integrity and lifelong learning."

Dr. Almassi's reply reflected the same humility he carries throughout his career. "It gives me a sense of great joy and satisfaction to see my students are successful in their journey to becoming well-rounded and competent physicians in their chosen field," he wrote back. "I am humbled by your letter but happy to see that I played a minor role in your education."

Beyond teaching, Dr. Almassi has spent his career at the forefront of surgical innovation. In December 1986, he performed the first world implant of the Endotak endovascular defibrillator lead, ushering in a new era of electrophysiology. In 1987, he became the first surgeon in Wisconsin to perform homograft aortic valve replacement, a technique he had learned during his congenital heart surgery training.

That early experience led to one of the most memorable moments of his career. Dr. Almassi had learned the homograft technique from Dr. Donald Ross, the world-renowned surgeon credited with pioneering its use decades earlier. In 1989, Dr. Ross visited MCW as a guest, and Dr. Almassi assisted him in surgery.

Pictured right: Dr. Almassi in surgery with Dr. Donald Ross.

"He was my guest here at the medical college," Dr. Almassi said. "I was doing homograft valve for a patient, and I was the assistant surgeon. He was the surgeon. It was an honor for me to have such a person here."

Dr. Almassi's list of firsts continued throughout his career. In 1995, he became the first surgeon in Milwaukee and Wisconsin to perform minimally invasive direct coronary artery bypass surgery. In 1998, he started the VA and MCW's off-pump, beating-heart surgery program and helped enroll patients in the ROOBY trial, the first large study comparing beating-heart surgery to arrested-heart surgery.

"It's a world-famous trial that we conducted with our national colleagues," he said. "I'm proud of that, and we have had a lot of publications from that study."

Over four decades, Dr. Almassi has authored more than 300 national and international presentations, peer-reviewed journal publications and book chapters in the field of cardiac surgery. He has served on the editorial board of the Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery and held leadership roles in several major professional organizations, including governor for Wisconsin of the American College of Chest Physicians, chair of that organization's Cardiovascular Medicine and Surgery Network and chair of the Membership Committee for the American Association for Thoracic Surgery. At MCW, he has served on the Nominating Committee, Admissions Committee, Faculty Benefits Committee, Faculty Career Development Committee, and Faculty Council.

Pictured left: Dr. Hossein Almassi presents on resident and fellow education at the 2017 American Association for Thoracic Surgery meeting in Seattle.

Dr. Almassi has also watched MCW itself transform over four decades, from a small regional institution to one with a strong national reputation.

"It hasn't always been a smooth path for the institution, for our division and I think for other departments too," he said. "But we have been able to go through that... to persist and try to do the positive things to get out of the difficulties and move forward. Those are the challenges that make you stronger."

Among his patients, one story stands out as a testament to the lasting impact of his work. One of his patients lived another 17 years after undergoing heart surgery under Dr. Almassi's care, passing away at the age of 96.

Pictured right: Dr. Almassi reunites with a patient whose heart surgery gave him nearly two more decades of life.

Dr. Almassi's connection to MCW extends beyond his own career. One of his children is an MCW alum who went on to train at the Cleveland Clinic and complete a fellowship before eventually joining Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center as an oncology urologist.

"I'm just proud that MCW, that my son is an alumnus of MCW, that he has been successful also," Dr. Almassi said.

Please join us in congratulating Dr. Hossein Almassi on 40 remarkable years of service to MCW. His pioneering surgical work and his enduring impact on generations of students and colleagues reflect the very best of what MCW strives to cultivate. We are deeply grateful for his contributions and for the legacy he continues to build.