Growing up, Christopher Bryant couldn’t compete in sports or run due to a heart murmur. When he tried to keep up with the other kids, he’d pass out. At 9 years old, Chris underwent heart surgery and doctors discovered he had a bicuspid aortic valve, a congenital heart defect. He learned to take care of himself due to his condition, but his symptoms — like swelling in his lower extremities — only worsened. Eventually, he learned he had severe heart failure.

Voting is now open for the U.S. News Best Hospital Survey. We appreciate your support in continuing as a national leader in heart and vascular care.

Among the top 10 in procedural volume in the U.S., the VAD program at the Washington University and Barnes-Jewish Heart and Vascular Center celebrates 25 years of innovation.

Just a few hundred years ago, the heart and its function were a bit of a mystery.

On Oct. 1, Tsuyoshi Kaneko, MD, was named the Shoenberg Professor of Surgery and chief of cardiac surgery at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Barnes-Jewish Hospital.