Dr. Bell-Thomson has pioneered new and minimally invasive cardiothoracic treatments. In 2009, Dr. Bell-Thomson performed the area’s first robotic-assisted mitral valve repair, a surgical procedure used to treat leakage of the heart’s mitral valve. In 2010, he and interventional cardiologists Henry Meltser, MD and Salvatore Calandra, MD, become the first physicians in the Buffalo area to offer to heart failure patients the new Abiomed Impella 2.5 catheter-based heart pump. This miniature pump is so small that it can be inserted through an artery and placed inside the heart within a few minutes. John Bell-Thomson, M.D., M.B.A. is a diplomat of the American Board of Surgery and holds a current certification by the American Board of Thoracic Surgery. He belongs to over 20 local, national and international professional societies. His extensive research experience is evidenced by his more than 50 published articles, abstracts, reviews, book chapters, presentations and invited lectures in the United States, South America, Australia, India and Europe. Dr. Bell-Thomson has also held several faculty appointments and is fluent in three languages (English, Spanish and French). Dr. Bell-Thomson graduated from the University of Buenos Aires School of Medicine in 1972. He completed his training in General Surgery at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City in 1977 and his training in the specialty of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery at the New England Deaconess Medical Center and Children’s Hospital in Boston, a Harvard Medical School graduate training program. In 1979, Dr. Bell-Thomson became the Associate Director of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York and in 1981 moved to Long Island Jewish Medical Center where he served as the Acting Director of the Cardiothoracic Surgery Program and Interim Director of the Residency Training Program in Thoracic Surgery. In 1985, he moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania as Chairman of the Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery at Albert Einstein Medical Center. In 1993 he moved to Buffalo, New York and assumed the position of Director of the Cardiothoracic Surgery Program at the Erie County Medical Center. As well as serving as Director of Thoracic Surgery at Sisters of Charity Hospital, and Chairman of the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Mercy Hospital. In the year 2000 Dr. Bell-Thomson obtained a Masters in Business Administration from the Canisius College in Buffalo. Dr. Bell-Thomson has held numerous faculty positions including Clinical Fellow in Surgery at Harvard Medical School, Instructor in Surgery at SUNY – Downstate, Assistant Professor of Surgery at SUNY – Stony Brook, Clinical Associate Professor of Surgery at Temple University School of Medicine and Associate Professor of Surgery at SUNY – Buffalo. Dr. Bell-Thomson’s professional memberships and activities include:
National Societies:
•American Medical Association
•American College of Surgeons (Fellow)
•American College of Chest Physicians (Fellow)
•American College of Cardiology (Fellow)
•The American College of Angiology (Fellow)
•Society of Thoracic Surgeons (Fellow)
•Society of Critical Care Medicine
•American Heart Association
•American Society for Artificial Internal Organs
International Societies:
•International Society for Cardiovascular Surgery
•International Society for Heart Transplantation
•Interamerican College of Physicians and Surgeons (Fellow)
•International College of Surgeons (Fellow)
•International Association for Cardiac Biological Implants
•International Federation of Surgical Colleges
•Spanish American Medical Society
Local Societies:
•New York Academy of Sciences
•New York Thoracic Surgery Society
•The Society of Thoracic Surgeons
•The New York Cardiological Society
•Medical Society of the State of New York
•Western New York Cardiovascular Society
•Medical Society, County of Erie
