Morton Bolman, III, MD, Cardiac Surgery
Dr. R. Morton “Chip” Bolman is a recognized international leader in global cardiac surgery. In 2006, Bolman, who at the time was, Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School and Chief of Cardiac Surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, and his wife, Ceeya Patton-Bolman, a master’s-prepared cardiac nurse, founded Team Heart, Inc, a 501c3 non-profit created to perform humanitarian cardiac surgery in Rwanda, in the wake of the 1994 Genocide, and with an ultimate goal of establishing sustainable cardiac surgery for the country. Bolman has led teams to Rwanda annually since 2008 to perform life-saving open-heart surgeries for people afflicted with end-stage rheumatic heart disease. In 2019, the focus of Team Heart changed from performing surgeries to one of mentoring for the surgeries of the local team, led by Rwandan native, Maurice Musoni, MD. Dr. Musoni had, in 2019, completed his training in cardiac surgery and passed the South African Board of Thoracic Surgery examination.
Bolman is a fourth-generation physician, born in Indiana, and received his undergraduate education at Williams College in Massachusetts. A Doctor of Medicine (Magna Cum Laude) then followed at St. Louis University. Dr. Bolman trained in general surgery at Duke University Medical Center, and in cardio-thoracic surgery at the University of Minnesota. Dr. Bolman remained at the University of Minnesota as Assistant Professor of Surgery. He was placed in charge of the new heart transplant program. Bolman developed a method of immunosuppression management which became the standard in the field. Bolman was recruited to Washington University in St. Louis, where Bolman initiated successful programs in heart, lung and heart-lung transplantation. Bolman returned to the University of Minnesota in 1989 as the C. Walton and Richard C. Lillehei Professor and Chief of the Division of Cardio-vascular and Thoracic Surgery, a position he occupied until 2015. At that time, Bolman was offered and accepted a position as Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School and Chief of Cardiac Surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.
Bolman is a member of all the major societies of surgery and thoracic surgery, including the American Association for Thoracic Surgery, the Society of Thoracic Surgeons, the American Surgical Association, the American College of Surgeons, to name a few. He has been active on the US national scene in thoracic transplantation and thoracic surgery education. He served for 6 years on the Residency Review Committee of the ACGME for Thoracic Surgery from 2005-2011.
In January, 2021, Bolman became Chair of the Cardiac Surgery Intersociety Alliance (CSIA). This is the entity that was created to represent the major societies of cardiac surgery, and the World Heart Federation. CSIA is charged with increasing access to cardiac surgery in the developing world. Following a request for proposals and an extensive evaluation process, which included a site visit to the finalist sites, CSIA selected Mozambique and Rwanda as the initial Pilot Sites for endorsement and assistance in establishing open heart surgery for their countries.
Dr. Bolman is retired from clinical surgery since 2017. He remains a major voice on global cardiac surgery and on increasing access to cardiac surgery for the developing world. He also remains actively involved in the work of Team Heart, and in its total commitment to the establishment of sustainable cardiac surgery for the people of Rwanda.
