From new leadership appointments to breaking new clinical barriers, here are 10 physicians that made Becker’s headlines in the last month.
1. Greer, S.C.-based Surgery Center at Pelham became the first ASC in the world to offer Stryker’s Mako Robotic Power System for total knee arthroplasty procedures. Frank Armocida, MD, performed the first total knee arthroplasty using the technology, making him the first surgeon in South Carolina, and the first in the country to bring the innovation to an ASC setting. Dr. Armocida was involved in the research and design of the Mako RPS technology in partnership with Stryker.
2. Jose Baez-Escudero, MD, chief of cardiology and electrophysiology at Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based Broward Health performed the first atrial fibrillation ablation in Broward County using the Varipulse pulsed field ablation catheter.
3. Cardiac surgeons Amy Fiedler, MD, and Jason Smith, MD performed their organization’s first heart transplant for a patient who previously received a total artificial heart at San Francisco-based UCSF Health.
4. Houston-based Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center has begun clinical use of GE HealthCare’s Allia Moveo imaging platform, becoming the first hospital in the U.S. to install the system. Gustavo Oderich, MD, a vascular surgeon and professor of surgery at Baylor College of Medicine, said the system allows physicians to manage increasingly complex minimally invasive procedures with improved imaging and flexibility.
5. Providence-based Rhode Island Hospital, part of Brown University Health, appointed Mark Cunningham, MD, as chief of cardiac surgery.
6. Gary Michelson, MD, placed 2,274 on Forbes’ 2026 billionaires list. Dr. Michelson is a retired orthopedic and spinal surgeon who holds roughly 340 U.S. patents for surgical instruments. His billionaire status came in 2005, when he reached a $1.35 billion settlement with Medtronic after years of litigation over those innovations.
7. Philadelphia-based Temple Health’s Fox Chase Cancer Center appointed David Weinberg, MD, a gastroenterologist, as vice president and physician lead of the cancer screening and prevention service line and associate director of cancer screening and prevention for the Institute for Cancer Research.
8. Tupelo-based North Mississippi Medical Center became the first hospital in Mississippi to treat tricuspid regurgitation using Abbott’s TriClip G5 system, a minimally invasive device designed for patients who are not candidates for open-heart surgery. The procedure was performed by cardiothoracic surgeon David Talton, MD, and interventional cardiologist Dane Ballard, MD. The transcatheter, edge-to-edge repair system reduces blood backflow by clipping the tricuspid valve leaflets together, improving heart efficiency.
At the Becker's 23rd Annual Spine, Orthopedic and Pain Management-Driven ASC + The Future of Spine Conference, taking place June 18–20 in Chicago, spine surgeons, orthopedic leaders and ASC executives will come together to explore minimally invasive techniques, ASC growth strategies and innovations shaping the future of outpatient spine care. Apply for complimentary registration now.
