Ray Blackwell appointed associate chief of Cardiac Surgery

Ray Blackwell, M.D., has been named associate chief of Cardiac Surgery.

As associate chief, Dr. Blackwell assumes additional leadership responsibilities in the cardiac surgery practice, which performs more than 800 heart surgeries each year. He will focus on section operations to enhance efficiency and optimize patient outcomes, and he will directly manage the assistant cardiac surgeons.

As a board-certified heart surgeon for more than 20 years, Dr. Blackwell is recognized among the top cardiac physicians in our region. He also serves as a trustee of Christiana Care Health System.

He graduated from Dartmouth Medical School. He completed his surgical residency at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York and his cardiothoracic fellowship at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia.

Dr. Blackwell began caring for patients at Christiana Care in 1996. In 2011, he became surgical director of the Mechanical Circulatory Support Program and led the initiative to establish Christiana Care’s ventricular-assist device program.

He has driven many successful quality-improvement initiatives, including reducing 30-day readmissions for coronary artery bypass grafting patients and improving clinical practice standards for extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) care.

He is a clinical assistant professor of surgery at Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University, and he is currently pursuing a Master of Jurisprudence degree in health care compliance and ethics at Widener University Delaware Law School.

Dr. Blackwell has held numerous leadership board positions for organizations, including the Delaware Board of Medical Licensure and Discipline, Delaware Medical Education Foundation, New Castle County Board of Directors for the American Heart Association and the Christiana Care Blood Pressure Ambassadors Program.