Tristan Yan is the Head of Robotic and Minimally Invasive Cardiothoracic Surgery Programs at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and the Sydney Adventist Hospital; Head of Thoracic Surgery Department at the Chris O’Brien Lifehouse; Clinical Professor of Surgery at the University of Sydney; and Professor of Cardiovascular & Thoracic Surgery at the Macquarie University, in Sydney, Australia. He is a visiting Professor of Cardiac Surgery at St Bartolommeo’s Heart Centre, in London, United Kingdom. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the Annals of Cardiothoracic Surgery.
"A Surgeon is not merely an operator, but a master of a craft operating with hands, mind and heart." Tristan D. Yan, MD, PhD
He graduated from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) with Bachelor of Science (Medicine), Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery. He completed three postgraduate higher degrees, Master of Surgery (USyd), Doctor of Medicine (UNSW) and Doctor of Philosophy (UNSW). He was trained at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney and then obtained Cardiothoracic Surgery Fellowship from the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons. Following advanced fellowships in the United States, England, Scotland and Germany, he specializes in major aortic surgery, minimally invasive heart and lung surgery.
He has authored or co-authored more than 300 articles and textbook chapters, with an h-index of 49 and approximately 8400 citations. His Collaborative Research (CORE) Group is responsible for establishing and organizing the world’s largest multi-institutional Aortic ARCH Registry, consisting of 14,000 patients and the multi-center Sutureless Aortic Valve Registry.
Surgical Expertise
Professor Tristan Yan is the Head of Robotic and Minimally Invasive Cardiothoracic Surgery Programs at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and the Sydney Adventist Hospital. He is recognized internationally for his specialty procedure – Minimal Access Aortic Surgery. He lectures abroad and operates in the UK and in South East Asia. He is a visiting Professor of Cardiac Surgery at St Bartolommeo’s Heart Centre in London, the largest cardiac centre in Europe. In the year 2017, Delacroix-Chevalier Company in Paris launched a full set of YAN surgical instruments, designed jointly with Professor Yan specifically for Minimally Invasive Aortic Surgery. These surgical instruments are now distributed in more than 30 countries.
He is the Head of Thoracic Surgery Department at the Chris O’Brien Lifehouse Cancer Centre in Sydney. He is an expert in surgical management of primary lung cancers, major sarcomas, pulmonary metastases and malignant pleural mesothelioma. In his early career, he completed his Surgical Oncology Fellowship with Professor Paul Sugarbaker in the United States, one of the most prominent cancer surgeons in the world. He was then closely trained by Professor Brian McCaughan, a leading thoracic surgeon in Australia and Professor William Walker, the pioneer of thoracoscopic lobectomy in Edinburgh, where he mastered the techniques of minimally invasive thoracic surgery. This was complemented with further Robotic Surgery training with Dr. Bernard Park in New Jersey. Currently, he performs approximately 350 thoracic surgical cases per year, majority of which are done via a minimally invasive technique.
Academic Achievements
Professor Tristan Yan has authored or co-authored more than 300 articles and textbook chapters, with an h-index of 49 and approximately 8400 citations. He has always aimed for the highest integrity towards clinical data, as he strongly advocates evidence-based medicine, rigorously pursues high-level evidence, continuously publishes research articles in high-impact journals, and actively promotes wide dissemination of research information in a timely, accurate and scientific manner.
Editor-in-Chief
Professor Yan is the Editor-in-Chief of the Annals of Cardiothoracic Surgery (ACS). This journal reflects his unique vision in cardiothoracic surgery, in that ACS is a comprehensive video resource of cardiothoracic surgical procedures that truly embraces today’s technological and multimedia environment. The innovative format is further epitomized by its highly scientific Systematic Review and Meta-analysis and richly illustrated Art of Operative Techniques sections. As the pioneering format of ACS has not been seen in any other surgical journals, its themed issues, accompanied by video articles from leading surgeons, has become a model for future surgical journals. The uniqueness of ACS offers an unparalleled insight into cardiothoracic surgery. ACS has received its inaugural Journal Impact Factor of 2.895. This exceptional result places the ACS as the fourth most highly ranked journal dedicated to cardiothoracic surgery. The journal is indexed by PubMed, Scopus and Google Scholar.
Professor Yan has several other editorial commitments including Executive Editor-in-Chief (Cardiovascular Surgery) for the Journal of Thoracic Disease. He is an external reviewer of National Institute of Clinical Evidence (NICE) for Health Technology Assessment. He is also on the journal review board for 15 journals, including Annals of Surgery, Annals of Surgical Oncology, British Journal of Cancer, British Journal of Surgery, Cancer, Cochrane Systematic Review Protocol, and Heart, amongst others.
Mentorship
Professor Yan’s Collaborative Research (CORE) Group is among the most productive research teams in the field for clinical research and evidence synthesis in surgery, with a specific focus on cardiovascular and thoracic surgery. He has personally trained each member of his team in systematic review, meta-analysis, propensity score analysis and academic writing. He also provides clinical teaching and mentoring to the junior surgical registrars, preparing them for the next level of their clinical responsibility.
International Collaborations
Professor Yan’s Collaborative Research (CORE) Group is a cohesive and highly networked research team in cardiovascular, thoracic and oncologic surgery, which is strongly supported by his international collaborators. They have established the largest multi-national Aortic ARCH Projects, involving 14,000 patients from 37 leading aortic centers from 11 countries, and the VATS Lobectomy Consensus Group, involving 50 world experts in Minimally Invasive Thoracic Surgery. CORE Group promotes clinical guidelines in conjunction with the Australian and New Zealand Society of Cardiac and Thoracic Surgeons (ANZSCTS).
