Robert D. Adams, MD, FACCP, FACS,MPH

In 2004, Dr. Adams was recruited to Owensboro by Laman Gray, MD and University of Louisville, to facilitate the re-establishment of the Cardiovascular Surgery Program. Prior to that, he had practiced successfully in Valparaiso, IN and more recently in Somerset, KY as the Medical Director of the Lake Cumberland Heart and Lung Institute.
Characteristic of Dr. Adams’ practice and career has been exploration and application of minimally invasive surgical techniques in the fields of Cardiac and Thoracic Surgery. His primary motivation in this adoption has been the desire to deliver the necessary surgical therapies with the least amount of surgical trauma. Beginning in the late 1990’s, he adopted MIDCAB, port-access revascularization strategies and mini-valve procedures. These approaches were complimented by the addition of off-pump or warm heart techniques, which have become the cornerstone of Owensboro Health Regional Hospital’s cardiac bypass program and are partially responsible for the outcomes success that the program has experienced.
This “minimally invasive” motivation has also informed Dr. Adams’ practice of thoracic surgery, including his work in the field of lung cancer. In 2009, he and the team at OHRH became the first program in the state to successfully perform lung cancer removal using the da Vinci robot. This early success has matured into OHRH’s position as the most experienced robotic thoracic surgery program in the region, identification of the facility as a regional training site for robotics, recognition of OHRH’s exceptional outcomes and statewide leadership in the early recognition and successful treatment of lung cancer.