Lilyanne Chen, MD

Lilyanne Chen, MD, is an Assistant Professor of Cardiovascular Surgery at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and an attending surgeon at The Mount Sinai Hospital.

A member of Mount Sinai’s aortic surgical team, she focuses on advanced aortic valve repair and reconstruction, including the Ross Procedure – the only aortic procedure that has been shown to restore people’s life expectancy to that of their healthy peers.

Dr. Chen’s research interests include the study of blood chemistry and its impact on bleeding and clotting, especially among patients with hemophilia. She also studies challenges in mitral valve surgery after Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR) in patients with multi-valve disease.

The daughter of a pediatrician, Dr. Chen traces her interest in medicine to childhood, when she would regularly study the pictures in her mother’s medical textbooks. By fifth grade, she had decided to become a doctor. After earning a BS from Carnegie Mellon, she earned an MS from the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, and an MD from the Tulane University School of Medicine.

She completed her residency in cardiothoracic surgery at The Mount Sinai Hospital, where she has continued to collaborate closely with Dr. David Adams and Dr. Ismail El-Hamamsy, both of whom are among the leading valve repair surgeons in their respective specialties.

Dr. Chen prides herself on listening carefully to her patients, always seeking to understand who they are as people – their interests, their work, and their priorities. “I love asking questions and learning what makes them tick,” she said. “Because surgery is even more gratifying when I know how I’m helping someone live the life they want to live.”