Ankit Bharat

Dr. Ankit Bharat is the Chief of Thoracic Surgery and the inaugural director of Lung Transplant and Lung Rescue Programs at Northwestern University- Northwestern Medicine in Chicago. He grew up in North India and then attended Christian Medical College, Vellore, India. He completed his general and cardiothoracic surgery training at Washington University in St Louis, USA. Upon joining Northwestern University–Northwestern Medicine, he led the multidisciplinary team that started the lung transplant and lung rescue programs. He is the youngest chief of a surgical division in his department. As an attending cardiothoracic surgeon at Northwestern University, he treats patients with cancers of the lung and esophagus as well as non-cancerous diseases. Additionally, he performs lung transplantation and artificial mechanical support for lung failure. Dr. Bharat serves as a principal investigator for a lung research program funded by the National Institute of Health. He has published over 140 peer-reviewed scientific manuscripts and several book chapters. He served as one of the leaders of the coronavirus taskforce at his institution and has performed numerous procedures on actively infected COVID-19 patients. Most recently, he performed the first double lung transplants, as a life-saving treatment of last resort, for critically ill patients with COVID-19 associated severe lung failure in the United States. His family includes a younger brother who is in training to become a medical specialist and parents who are physicians still practicing in North India.