Dr. Hartmuth Bittner is a senior cardiothoracic surgeon with extensive clinical, academic and research experience in cardiovascular and thoracic procedures. His surgical experience covers cardiac surgery, heart and lung transplantation, coronary revascularization, and minimally invasive techniques. Dr. Hartmuth Bittner developed this expertise through medical training at the University of Heidelberg and a surgical residency at Duke University. He also served in subsequent appointments at established medical institutions in Germany and the United States.

Dr. Bittner is experienced in several areas of advanced cardiac surgery, including coronary artery bypass grafting, aortic procedures, heart failure surgery and mitral valve repair. He has worked with both on-pump and off-pump coronary revascularization techniques and performed combined coronary artery bypass and valve procedures. He is also skilled in transcatheter aortic valve replacement, an approach he has practiced for more than a decade.

Transplantation has been a significant part of Dr. Bittner’s career. At the University of Leipzig, he held the endowed chair of clinical and experimental thoracic organ transplantation. Later, Dr. Bittner became director of heart and lung transplantation and chief of advanced cardiac surgery at Florida Hospital in Orlando. His achievements at the hospital included establishing a lung transplant program. He also participated in the first successful heart and lung transplants in Central Florida in 2012.