Back to John W. Kirklin/David Ashburn Fellowship

View CV

Dr. Paul Devlin is the current Kirklin/Ashburn Fellow at the CHSS Data Center. Originally from Annapolis, Maryland, Paul attended Northwestern University for his undergraduate studies where he received his degree in Biology with a concentration in Neurobiology. He remained at Northwestern for medical school as a part of the Honor's Program in Medical Education.

In medical school, Paul pursued his interest in congenital cardiac surgery via an internship at Northwestern's Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute. He conducted clinical research at Lurie Children's Hospital with his mentor, Dr. Carl Backer. He studied clinical outcomes of patients with doubly committed juxta-arterial VSDs and partial atrioventricular septal defects (Ann Thorac Surg 2016 Jul;102(1):170-7 and Ann Thorac Surg 2014 Jun;97(6):2134-41). The pathophysiology of each heart defect, its direct linkage to the heart's anatomy, and the ability to fix it are what draws Paul to congenital cardiac surgery.

Paul is taking a hiatus from his residency in the Integrated Cardiothoracic Surgery program at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago. In his role as the Kirklin/Ashburn Fellow, Paul looks forward to learning from and working with the CHSS membership as they work to answer clinical questions uniquely suited to the CHSS registry's longitudinal data set. Through this work, he will gain the tool kit he will need in his future career as an academic congenital cardiac surgeon.

Paul would like to thank all of the patients and their families who have contributed their health information, as well as the many coordinators who facilitate its collection, to form the CHSS registry. It has enabled life-changing research and he is humbled by the opportunity to take part in the process.