Dr. Kelsey Gray is a cardiac surgeon at Yale New Haven Hospital and assistant professor of surgery at Yale University. She is the director of Cardiothoracic Transplantation and ECMO/Mechanical Circulatory Support.
She earned her medical degree from the University of Washington, completed general surgery residency at Harbor-UCLA and trained in cardiac surgery at University Hospitals/Case Western Reserve University. She specializes in transplantation and robotic minimally invasive cardiac surgery.
What makes you a Healthcare Hero?
I started at Yale in September 2025 with the goal of reestablishing the robotic cardiac surgery program. Working closely with a dedicated multidisciplinary team, our first robotic case was performed that same month. A year later, we have completed more than 80 robotic cardiac surgery cases.
This growing experience includes well-established procedures such as robotic-assisted minimally invasive coronary artery bypass grafting and mitral valve repair. However, it also includes much less common procedures including robotic aortic valve replacement and totally endoscopic coronary artery bypass grafting, which are only performed at a handful of institutions worldwide.
I have also partnered with our congenital colleagues and have started offering robotic adult congenital surgeries. I am exceedingly proud of the rapid growth of this program because we are now able to offer our patients less invasive surgical options for many procedures that historically have not been done through a minimally invasive approach.
Tell us about a challenge in your job that you were able to overcome.
The most difficult part of starting and then growing the robotic cardiac surgery program was getting the word out to patients, cardiologists and other referring physicians. Many people don’t know that there is likely a minimally invasive alternative to the open cardiac surgery they have been offered.
There will always be some surgeries that require an open, more traditional approach, but many patients that need valve surgery or coronary artery bypass grafting can have that surgery done with a robotic minimally invasive approach.
What’s your next major goal and/or challenge?
I would love to see more patients with the opportunity to have their surgery done via a robotic minimally invasive approach. I will continue to work to grow the visibility of our program so that more people are aware of their options.
However, my other major role is in heart failure and transplant, and I have been working hard with that team to reach more patients that would benefit from heart transplant or other advanced heart failure interventions in the state of Connecticut.
