Congratulations to anesthesiologist Lovkesh Arora, MBBS, and cardiothoracic surgeon Sharon Beth Larson, DO, MS, FACOS, FACS, who have accepted leadership roles for our ECMO program. Arora and Larson will be responsible for the overall performance of the ECMO program ensuring the highest quality of patient care.

Lovkesh Arora, MBBS, MD

Lovkesh Arora, MBBS, MD, earned his MBBS and MD degrees at B.J. Medical College, Gujarat University, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India. Shortly after, he traveled to Miami, Florida, where he completed a fellowship in Critical Care in Anesthesia and a fellowship in Solid Organ Transplant in Anesthesia, both at the University of Miami. Arora then went on to complete his residency in anesthesiology at The Cleveland Clinic Foundation in Cleveland, Ohio. After completing residency in 2014, he accepted a position as an Associate of Anesthesia in the Department of Anesthesia, Carver College of Medicine, at the University of Iowa in Iowa City and has most recently been promoted to Clinical Associate Professor.

At University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics, in 2016 Arora became the director of the vascular resident rotation and added the directorship of the anesthesia critical care resident rotation in 2018. He is active beyond his clinical duties, writing articles related to spinal cord protection for the medical journals of Anesthesiology, the Journal of Cardiothoracic and Vascular Anesthesiology and the newsletter ASA Monitor. In 2015, Arora became certified by the National Board of Echocardiography as a diplomate for Perioperative Transesophageal Echocardiography and in 2019 as a Testamur in Critical Care Echocardiogram. Also, in 2019, Arora was awarded the Resident Excellence in Teaching Award from the Department of Anesthesia and the Making a Difference Award from the University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics.

He has represented our institution and program at the national level serving as faculty for the Extracorporeal Life Support Organization’s (ELSO) Adult ECMO Training Program and has been an active member of the Adult ECMO Managing Physician team since 2015.

Sharon Beth Larson, DO, MS, FACOS, FACS

Sharon Beth Larson, DO, MS, is a clinical assistant professor in the Department of Surgery and Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, Iowa. She graduated from Touro University College of Osteopathic Medicine in Vallejo, California and completed her general surgery residency at New York University Lutheran Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York. Larson completed her fellowship in cardiothoracic surgery at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, Minnesota and completed an advanced fellowship in thoracic transplantation and mechanical circulatory support at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.

Larson is the first female recipient of the Lillehei Surgical Society Richard C. Lillehei and Earl Bakken Prize awarded to her at the Society of Thoracic Sugeons Annual Meeting in San Diego, California in 2015 and has won other awards including the Random Acts of Kindness Award in medical school and the Sampath Kumar Award for Excellence in Surgery in her residency. She is the first female cardiothoracic surgeon to practice in the state of Iowa and her professional interests include heart and lung transplantation, mechanical circulatory support, and adult cardiac surgery.

Please Join me in congratulating Drs. Arora and Larson and supporting them as they take on these important leadership roles.

Phillip A. Horwitz, MD

Executive Director, University of Iowa Heart & Vascular Center

Cardiovascular Division/Interventional Cardiology

University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics