Dr. Kalfa is a Board-certified cardiothoracic surgeon with a sub-specialization in pediatric cardiac surgery. Dr. Kalfa specializes in neonatal surgery and complex heart reconstructions in children, including minimally invasive congenital cardiac surgery and hybrid procedures. As chief of cardiovascular surgery , co-director of the heart Institute at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital and Professor of Surgery and Pediatrics at Florida International University, Dr. Kalfa sees patients at the Department of Pediatric cardiac Surgery at the Nicklaus Children’s Hospital.
A native of France, Dr. Kalfa graduated from Marseilles University with the highest level of distinction in 2010. After receiving his PhD degree in 2011 with the highest level of distinction at Paris University, he then performed a clinical fellowship in Congenital Cardiovascular Surgery at Marie Lannelongue Hospital, Paris, and a clinical fellowship in Adult Cardiac Surgery at Laval University Hospital in Quebec, Canada. Dr Kalfa then served as Assistant Attending Surgeon in Congenital Cardiac Surgery at Columbia University Medical Center and is Associate Professor of Surgery at NYP-Columbia University. He now serves as Chief of Cardiovascular Surgery at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital, in Miami, Florida
As a biomedical researcher, Dr. Kalfa’s research initiatives center on tissue engineering in the field of congenital cardiac diseases. He has received numerous international grants supporting his research, and was appointed as an expert for the National Association for Biomedical Research. He is directing European and US multicenter studies about outcomes after repair of complex cardiac defects and neuropsychological outcomes, and was Principal Investigator of an international consortium working to develop a tissue-engineered device for repair of complex cardiac disease. He s the recipient of two NIH R01 grants for translational research programs focusing on improving outcomes and safety of surgery in children and adults with congenital heart diseases.
research interests
Dr. Kalfa's Research efforts focus on translational cardiovascular research aimed at improving outcomes for children born with congenital heart defects requiring surgical intervention. We integrate engineering, biology, and clinical expertise to develop and evaluate next-generation heart valve repair technologies. Ongoing projects include the design and testing of biodegradable polymeric scaffolds for cardiovascular repair, assessment of surgical procedures and implant performance in small and large animal models, and computational fluid dynamic modeling for optimizing bioreactor function in living tissue storage and conditioning. This multidisciplinary work bridges fundamental bioengineering with clinical application to advance pediatric cardiac surgery and long-term patient outcomes
