Prof. DR. Igor D. Gregoric, MD, FACC, FACS, MBA

Professor Dr. Igor D. Gregoric is a cardiothoracic surgeon and physician-scientist who has dedicated his career to advancing the fields of cardiothoracic surgery, heart transplantation, and mechanical circulatory support.

He earned his medical degree and completed his internship at the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia. He began his training in general surgery in Slovenia, but aspiring to become a cardiothoracic surgeon, he sought an opportunity to train at a world-renowned cardiovascular institution in the United States. In 1984, he was accepted into a cardiovascular fellowship at the Texas Heart Institute in Houston, where he trained under the legendary cardiac surgeon Dr. Denton A. Cooley. He subsequently completed additional fellowships in Vascular Surgery under Dr. George Reul, and Transplantation and Mechanical Circulatory Support under Dr. O. H. Frazier, also at the Texas Heart Institute.

In 1992, Dr. Gregoric began an ACGME-accredited General Surgery residency at the University of Texas McGovern Medical School, under the program directorship of Dr. John Potts. After completing his General Surgery residency, he was accepted into an ACGME-accredited Cardiothoracic Surgery residency at the Texas Heart Institute, which he completed in 1998. He subsequently became Board Certified by the American Board of Surgery in 2000 and by the American Board of Thoracic Surgery in 2003.

In 2012, Dr. Gregoric was recruited to the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth), where he currently serves as Chief and Program Director of the Cardiopulmonary Transplantation and Mechanical Circulatory Support Program at the Center for Advanced Heart Failure at the UTHealth / Memorial Hermann Heart and Vascular Institute. He holds the title of Tenured Professor of Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgery.

Under his leadership, the program has significantly expanded its clinical capacity and now performs more than 1,500 surgical procedures annually, including 40–50 heart transplants, 25 lung transplants, 60–70 LVAD implantations, approximately 150 ECMO procedures, and over 500 TAVR procedures.

From 2005 to 2012, Dr. Gregoric organized and conducted training workshops at the Texas Heart Institute on multiple LVAD systems, contributing to the education of surgeons and specialists in mechanical circulatory support. He has served as principal investigator or co-investigator on numerous FDA and industry-sponsored national clinical trials.

Dr. Gregoric has presented his work at more than 300 scientific conferences and has published over 450 peer-reviewed scientific papers. In addition, he is the author of more than 300 scientific abstracts presented at national and international meetings. Furthermore, he contributed 14 invited book chapters, and most recently, in March 2025, he served as the lead editor of a textbook on the management of Severe Heart Failure Patients.

He is an active member of 18 professional societies and associations, including FACC (Fellow of the American College of Cardiology) and FACS (Fellow of the American College of Surgeons), and has served on numerous professional committees.

In recognition of his contributions to medicine and science over a span of 4 decades, he was awarded numerous awards and recognitions such as:  Hipokratova priznanje (Hippocratic Oath Award) by the Medical Chamber of Slovenia;  American Heart Association “Medical Honoree’ in 2014; Honorary Membership of the Slovene Medical Association in 2015; Ambassador of Science by the University of Ljubljana and Republic of Slovenia in 2016; and Honorary Doctorate (PhD) in 2017 by the University of Nova Gorica. In 2017 he also received the “VTIS leta 2017” (Influencer of the Year) award from the Association of Slovens Educated Abroad. However, most recently in 2026, he was appointed as a Honorary Professor at his Alma-mater institution, the University of Ljubljana Medical School, in recognition for his teaching, research and the contributions to Slovene medical sciences.

To further his knowledge and education he studied and completed the Postgraduate Surgical Leadership Certificate Program at Harvard Medical School, where his Capstone Project received the first prize. In 2023 he received MBA title when he graduated from Master of Business Administration at the University of Houston.

Dr. Gregoric continues to be an active member of numerous medical societies,. His unconditional dedication to teaching, research and his continuous contributions in clinical sciences of cardiovascular and thoracic surgery are inspiration for other physicians and young trainees; but most importantly they serve to improve the outcomes for his patients at the UTHeaalth in Houston and his MEDARTIS clinic in Slovenia.