Alan Markowitz, MD

About

Alan Markowitz, MD, is Cardiac Surgical Director of the University Hospitals Harrington Heart & Vascular Institute at University Hospitals Ahuja Medical Center in Beachwood, Ohio. He is also the Marcella “Dolly” Haugh Chair in Valvular Surgery at University Hospitals and Assistant Clinical Professor of Surgery at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine.

After graduating from the University of Rochester, Dr. Markowitz earned his medical degree from Albany Medical College. He completed an internship in general surgery, a residency in thoracic surgery and a fellowship in thoracic surgery at University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center (then called University Hospitals of Cleveland). Dr. Markowitz is a Navy veteran, having served two years in the middle of his residency training as a doctor with a construction battalion in and out of Southeast Asia during Vietnam. After his fellowship, Dr. Markowitz practiced at an academically oriented hospital operated as part of SUNY Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, New York. Subsequently, Dr. Markowitz was recruited back to Cleveland to establish the cardiac surgery program at Mt. Sinai Medical Center, where he stayed until joining University Hospitals as the vice chair of cardiac surgery in 1997. Since that time, he has practiced as an adult cardiac surgeon at University Hospitals with a very strong emphasis on surgery for valvular heart disease.

Dr. Markowitz is widely published in the surgical areas of ventricular function, aortic valve replacement, safer cardiopulmonary perfusion and cardiovascular imaging. He has presented at numerous national conferences on such surgical topics as stentless aortic valve implantation, computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging in the cardiac surgical patient, stroke avoidance during cardiac surgery and minimally invasive valve surgery. He has also led multiple clinical trials related to valvular heart surgery.

Dr. Markowitz is the recipient of a number of honors, including the Marcella “Dolly” Haugh Chair in Valvular Surgery, given by a very grateful patient to honor his mother in 2008. In 2016, Dr. Markowitz received the Physician of the Year award from University Hospitals’ Society of 1866. In 2018, a number of University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center alumni endowed him with the Alan Markowitz, MD, Chair in Cardiac and Vascular Surgery.

Dr. Markowitz is a Member of the Society for Minimally Invasive Cardiac Surgery, Heart Valve Society and Society of Thoracic Surgeons. His special interests include valvular heart disease, complex multivalve procedures, transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR), use of stentless valves and atrial fibrillation surgery.