A heart-to-heart with a pioneer in cardiac surgery

Ask Dr. Tirone David about his achievements and you’re bound to get a humble response. He doesn’t boast about being a 2025 inductee to Canada’s Walk of Fame, receiving the Order of Canada (the country’s highest civilian honour) or collecting countless accolades over four decades. At 80, the affable world-renowned cardiac surgeon talks about his lifelong dedication to the cause: trying to conquer a disease that never dies.

Dr. David has been dubbed one of the biggest influences in cardiovascular surgery, pioneering 16 groundbreaking procedures, performing more than 15,000 open-heart surgeries—with a nearly 100 per cent success rate—and publishing more than 450 scientific papers. Still, he’s the first to admit he’s not perfect, and that’s what keeps him going. “I have a sense of self-criticism. My driving force is an immense desire to do better today than I did yesterday,” he says. “I aim for perfection, but I’m human. My patients do very well, and that’s something I want people to remember.”

Still operating twice weekly at University Health Network’s (UHN) Peter Munk Cardiac Centre in Toronto, the premier cardiac centre in the country, Dr. David has played a key role in the cardiac and vascular health-care innovation the hospital is known for. “I’m not a genius,” he says with a laugh, “but I’m curious and have had spectacular mentors who have taught me to learn as much as I can. This has inspired and encouraged me to continue to discover new ways to help patients.”

He explains he’s an innovator at heart—he’s creative, a workaholic and always hungry for knowledge. “I’ve never stopped asking why—if something hasn’t worked, I’ve always wanted to know why, and I learn about the subject as much as possible, then try to modify it based on existing knowledge.” Dr. David calls this a stepwise process toward perfection. “All the operations I have developed are a product of a stepwise process. As Thomas Edison described it, one per cent inspiration, 99 per cent perspiration.”

His dedication to innovation hasn’t just manifested in procedures, it has also made a difference in the way patients are treated post-op. “There were no computer programs to follow patients 45 years ago, so I had to figure out how to monitor patients on an ongoing basis. And I learned what worked not only in the short term, but over the patients’ lifetimes,” he says. “I was a busy surgeon, operating day and night, but I learned how to follow people and learn from their outcomes. That’s still important today. The information I have been able to provide to the scientific community has been unique because I’ve shown the effect of what we do in the operating room for decades after.”

With one of the largest cardiovascular care programs in North America, the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre trains more cardiologists and cardiovascular surgeons than any other hospital in Canada, and Dr. David has been at the forefront of modelling not only technique and invention, but also empathy and dedication.

The clinicians he works with at UHN have benefitted from his passion and drive, as have the doctors he’s trained all over the world. “I’m often invited to speak and operate with doctors in other countries,” he says, adding that he’s performed surgeries in more than 60 countries, most recently Malaysia. “When I’m asked to demonstrate the procedures I’ve developed, it’s an honour. I’ll show the team how to do the procedure, then I’ll work alongside them in the operating room before watching them do a few on their own,” he says. “There’s satisfaction in knowing that I can teach someone to do a procedure I’ve developed just as well as I can. We’ve saved thousands of patients around the globe.”

Dr. David’s humility resurfaces when he speaks about the successes and the impact he’s imparted on the next generation of cardiovascular surgeons, and those who will follow. He says none of it would be possible without the generosity of UHN’s benefactors, whose charitable endeavours allow doctors and researchers to move medicine forward.

While Dr. David is proud that he’s changed the way cardiac surgery is done, he’s even prouder of the impact he’s had on so many lives. He’s quick to credit the philanthropists who support UHN. “I’m very dependent on them. There’s change for the sake of change, and then there’s change for the better. My team and I couldn’t do the research that changes lives for the better without their generosity,” he says.

While Dr. David still has the time and energy to see patients and mentor surgical teams, retirement isn’t far off. “Cardiac surgery requires an incredible amount of mental effort, but it’s also very physical. I’ll know when it’s time to step out of the operating room,” he says, adding that he relies heavily on his team—the dedicated nurses he works with who ensure patients feel cared for and heard. “I have empathy for people, and an innate curiosity and desire to do well. I’ve tried to be the best I can be and do whatever it takes,” he says. “Take yesterday—I had two very complex operations and spent the night at the patients’ bedsides. The reward is that both will live and do well. I come across as very accessible and very humble because I am. I care about my patients, and that’s just as important as anything I’ve done in my career.”

This article originally appeared in Maclean’s, read it here.