Daniel H. Drake, M.D. is a graduate from the University of Michigan Medical School and Cardiothoracic Surgery Fellowship. His general surgery and trauma residencies were completed at the University of Texas S.W./Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas, Texas. He co-founded Munson Medical Center’s cardiothoracic surgery (CTS) program in 1990. Over the ensuing 30 years Munson’s CTS program received many national awards for clinical excellence. Dr. Drake is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons and the American Society of Echocardiography, as well as past President of the Michigan Society of Thoracic & Cardiovascular Surgeons. He has served on numerous American Association for Thoracic Surgery, Society of Thoracic Surgeons, and American Society of Echocardiography educational, governance, ethics, and perioperative imaging committees. His practice and clinical research are largely focused on image-guided complex mitral-valve reconstruction, echocardiography, and cardiothoracic ethics. He has numerous peer-reviewed publications, book chapters, and commentaries and speaks nationally and internationally on these topics. Dr. Drake remains certified by both the American Board of Surgery and the American Board of Thoracic Surgery.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, Dr. Drake relocated to the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases Laboratory in Columbia, Missouri, developed an aerosol SARS-CoV-2 model and tested the anti-viral properties of nitric oxide. As Chief Medical Officer of Nitric Oxide Therapeutic Applications (aka NOTA), he facilitated the development of numerous devices for nitrous oxide generation and administration to mitigate Covid-19.

Dr. Drake’s translational research has since focused on end-stage mitral disease, prolonged ex situ donor heart preservation, ex situ hemodynamic assessment and echocardiographic imaging, organ banking, and the use of nitric oxide to mitigate cardiopulmonary bypass associated inflammation and reperfusion injury. He has published paradigmatic articles on plasma exchange for prolonged ex situ heart perfusion, optimal ex situ coronary perfusion, and a detailed United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) refusal code analysis that outlines next steps for increasing the donor-heart pool. He has recently developed and validated an organ indexing system that provides prolonged ex situ preservation and allows stratification of donor heart function and confirmation of transplant suitability.