Hisham Elzayat, MD, MSc, SQIL

Dr. Hisham Elzayat is a board-certified cardiothoracic surgeon and strategic medical affairs leader with a unique career spanning both clinical practice and the medical device industry. Originally from Egypt, he completed medical school in 1997 and pursued a global training path that included residencies in Egypt and England, culminating in advanced heart transplant training at the Harefield and Papworth centers under Professor Magdi Yacoub. He completed a fellowship in heart transplantation at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, in 2016. Dr. Elzayat’s surgical career has been marked by hands-on expertise in complex cardiac procedures, including organ harvesting, transplantation, and patient-centered innovations in cardiothoracic surgery.

Transitioning from the operating room to the medical device industry, Dr. Elzayat applied his clinical insights to develop and enhance life-saving medical technologies. He worked with TransMedics, Inc., designing heart, lung, and liver devices that preserved organ function outside the body and training surgeons internationally on their use. At Getinge, he established and led their first medical affairs team as Global Medical Director, and at Philips, he oversaw patient safety and regulatory compliance, including management of major device recalls. His dual perspective as both a surgeon and an industry leader allows him to bridge clinical needs with technological innovation, creating substantial impact on patient care and global healthcare practices.

Currently, Dr. Elzayat operates his own consultancy, providing strategic medical affairs guidance, patient safety oversight, and technology integration advice to organizations worldwide. He maintains affiliations with Emory University and Massachusetts General Hospital while leveraging his experience to optimize medical device performance, regulatory compliance, and clinical outcomes. Dr. Elzayat credits his success to the rare opportunity of working on both sides of healthcare—direct patient care as a surgeon and broad-scale impact through the medical device industry—enabling him to affect thousands of patients’ lives beyond the operating room each day.

• Medical School - Egypt - 1997

• MD

• Second Place - European Society for Minimally Invasive Cardiothoracic Surgery Competition - 2010

• European Cardiothoracic Society

Dr. Elzayat published a major randomized controlled study in 2011 on a device called HeartString. This publication was a significant game changer in the field of cardiac surgery. He notes that while he has only one major publication, it was a large-scale randomized study that had substantial impact on the field.