Tenet Florida Physician Services (TFPS) is pleased to announce expert cardiac surgeon Dr. Brian T. Bethea joins the multispecialty physician group and Tenet Florida as Regional Medical Director of Cardiovascular Surgery. Dr. Bethea is a member of the Tenet Florida Heart & Vascular Network and on-staff at Delray Medical Center and Florida Medical Center, a campus of North Shore. Dr. Bethea is board-certified by the American Board of Surgery and American Board of Thoracic Surgery. He specializes in minimally invasive heart valve replacement and repair, catheter-based heart therapies including: transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) – replacing the aortic valve via a catheter rather than traditional open heart surgery, thoracic endovascular aortic repair (TEVAR), aortic, mitral, and tricuspid surgeries and a minimally invasive approach to left ventricular assist devices (LVAD) for advanced heart failure. His practice will be based in Delray Beach.From 1995 to 2008, Dr. Bethea completed extensive education and training in cardiothoracic surgery. He graduated medical school from the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center and completed residency at The Johns Hopkins Hospital Department of Surgery in Baltimore. Dr. Bethea also completed his residency, fellowship and research fellowship at The Johns Hopkins Hospital. Prior to coming to South Florida, Dr. Bethea won several national awards for his work in the field of cardiothoracic surgery. He was named the recipient of the 2013 Aaron E. Estera Excellence in Teaching Award at UT Southwestern, the 2003 Hawley H. Seiler Resident Research Award from the Southern Thoracic Surgical Association, a 2002 Irene Piccini Cardiac Surgery Investigator Award from Johns Hopkins Division of Cardiac Surgery, the 1999 Medical Book Award – University of Oklahoma Medical School Surgery and the 1995 University of Oklahoma Excellence in Research Award.
Dr. Bethea’s academic appointments from 2008 to 2014 include associate professor in the Department of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery at the UT Southwestern Medical Center, associate residency program director and associate LVAD director at the university and in 2013 he was appointed surgical director – Transcatheter Cardiac Therapies Program (TAVR) and surgical co-director of the Minimally Invasive Valve Program. Dr. Bethea has published numerous scientific publications relating to cardiothoracic medicine in peer reviewed journals and medical books. Since 2003, he has written numerous abstracts on cardiothoracic research and participated as an invited lecturer in two dozen cardiothoracic conferences, meetings and symposiums.
