Richard A. Hopkins, M.D. - Cardiothoracic Surgeon, Rhode Island Hospital and Professor of Surgery, Brown University School of Medicine

This academic year marks the 10th anniversary of Dr. Richard Hopkins’ appointment as Chief of the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery for the Brown University School of Medicine.  He also holds the endowed Karl E. Karlson, M.D. and Gloria A. Karlson Professorial Chair in Cardiac Surgery and is Director of the Collis Cardiac Surgical Research Laboratory.  He holds additional Professorial appointments in other Brown Departments including Pediatrics, Molecular Pharmacology, Physiology, and Biotechnology, and is also an Associate Professor in the Department of Engineering for Brown University.  Currently, Richard has been awarded a Sabbatical, which has freed him from the administrative duties of the hospital Chief positions for Cardiac Surgery at the Rhode Island, Miriam and Hasbro Children’s Hospitals.  During his Sabbatical Richard continues to operate clinically but is limiting his practice to the area of his special focus of structural heart disease which includes congenital heart lesions, complex valve replacement and repair surgeries, heart valve transplants, complex reconstructive surgery, Ross operations, etc.  This has allowed him to address three topics of study during his Sabbatical: 1) tissue engineering of cardiac constructs (translational research), 2) game theory and strategic tactical thinking; the art, craft, and science of cardiac surgery, and 3) structure function analysis of cardiovascular research institutes. 

Richard received his undergraduate and medical school training at Duke University where he also completed the 10-year residency in General, Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery culminating in his appointment as teaching scholar in Cardiac Surgery of the Duke University Medical Center in 1983-1984.  He spent the following year as a Senior Surgical Registrar in Pediatric Cardiac Surgery at the Hospital for Sick Children, Great Ormond Street, London, England.   He holds many honors including Alpha Omega Alpha and has been elected to numerous professional societies including the Congenital Heart Surgeon’s Society, the American Surgical Association, the Society for Heart Valve Disease, the Lunar Society for Congenital Cardiac Surgery (for which he serves as President), the Association for Academic Surgery, American Association for Thoracic Surgery, Southern Surgical Association and the Society of Thoracic Surgeons.  Richard has been repeatedly recognized as one of the countries best doctors in various “guides to America’s top surgeons” being recognized for both pediatric and adult cardiac surgery.  Prior to taking his post in Providence, Rhode Island, Richard was on the faculty of Georgetown University Medical Center dividing his time between adult and pediatric surgery, and where he was Chief of the Pediatric Cardiac Surgery program.   While at Georgetown he rose through the ranks from Assistant to full Professor of Surgery.  Richard is a regular reviewer for many of the important journals in the field and has guest edited multiple monographs.   He holds a patent for tissue engineering heart valves, has mentored PhD’s for cardiac physiology dissertation topics, and developed the Roddy Scholar in Cardiac Surgical Research program at Rhode Island Hospital for the development of future clinician scientists in the field of cardiac surgery.   He is the author and co-author of over 150 peer-reviewed publications.  Richard’ latest book “Cardiac Reconstructions with Allograft Tissues” has been published this year by Springer-Verlag (655p, New York).