Edward B. Savage, MD

Dr. Savage joined Cleveland Clinic Martin Health in 2018 as medical director of cardiovascular surgical services. He graduated from Columbia University with a degree in biochemistry and completed his medical education at Yale Medical School. He first trained in general surgery at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. This training included two years of laboratory research. He then trained in cardiothoracic surgery at the Brigham and Women's Hospital/Harvard Medical School. He is certified by the American Board of Thoracic Surgery.

Dr. Savage came to the Cleveland Clinic Florida from St. Louis. While primarily a practicing cardiothoracic surgeon, his appointments in the past included Chairman of the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Cook County Hospital and Associate Professor at Rush Medical School, both in Chicago. He is currently a Clinical Professor at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine. He has served as Chairman of the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Cleveland Clinic Florida and in 2014 was appointed as Center Director for the Heart and Vascular Institute. Dr. Savage has been in practice for 30 years.

Dr. Savage's academic activities have included authorship of numerous scholarly articles, editorship of portions of the Cardiothoracic Surgery Network (CTSnet.org), and serving as a reviewer for multiple scientific journals in his field. He is credited with publication of two books including the "Atlas of Mitral Valve Repair." Recognized numerous times, he was cited as a Top Doctor in the Chicago area for many years and for the past few years in Florida.

Dr. Savage practices across the spectrum of cardiothoracic surgery and has broad experience in  reoperative and complex cardiac surgery, valvular heart disease, mitral valve repair, surgical approaches to heart failure, minimally invasive heart surgery, minimally invasive lung surgery, lung cancer, and other diseases of the chest.

Q&A with Dr. Savage

What activities do you enjoy outside of your medical practice?
I go to the gym, swim, bike and train with weights. I have earned a black belt in Shotokan karate.  I do crossword puzzles, and I’m an avid reader of the Wall Street Journal.

What led you to become a cardiothoracic surgeon?
I’ve always been interested in medicine. I loved science and biology when I was younger. In medical school, I found cardiac physiology fascinating. Surgery allows me to use my hands; I enjoy addressing episodic conditions, rather than chronic ones.

As a surgeon who handles episodic conditions, how well do you get to know your patients?
I feel that I have a more intimate experience with my patients than many doctors due to the invasive nature of surgery. Although the procedures I perform may be routine, the stakes are high and things can go wrong very easily. I always try to develop a relationship with my patients by finding a common interest like sports or some other topic of interest. Once the surgery is done, it’s still important for me to closely monitor my patients until I’m confident that their condition is stable.

What kind of clinical team is needed in cardiovascular surgery ?
Cardiovascular surgery is truly a team sport. There is close interaction between the surgeon and the perfusionist, anesthesiologist, physician assistants and the nurses. As a surgeon, you have to build your team and its performance depends on how you structure, lead and treat your team. When I arrived at Martin Health [before it became part of Cleveland Clinic], I didn’t have to build a team, but we had to enlarge it to handle the volume of patients we would be seeing. From the start, we began operating on patients who would have been sent elsewhere just a short time ago. The care team that was in place at Martin Health was excellent. They were up to, and embraced, the challenge.

Specialty Interests

• Coronary Artery Bypass
• General Thoracic Surgery
• Hypertrophic Obstructive Cardiomyopathy
• Lung Cancer Surgery
• Minimally Invasive Chest Surgery
• Minimally Invasive Valve Surgery
• Mitral and Aortic Valve Repair and Replacement
• Reoperative Open Heart Surgery
• Robot Assisted Lung Surgery
• Thoracic Aortic Aneurysms
• Thymectomy