Dr. Barnhart serves as egnite’s chief medical officer, providing vision for the future of care for structural heart disease patients. He held a similar role as a strategic advisor on the medical advisory board of Edwards Lifesciences before joining egnite’s physician leadership panel.

Most recently, prior to his retirement after a 32-year career in cardiac surgery , Dr. Barnhart served as Co-executive Director of Swedish Heart and Vascular Institute and was Chief of Cardiac Surgery at Swedish Medical Center in Seattle, Washington. During his time there he started the Structural Heart Program and became its surgical director. While at Swedish, Dr. Barnhart used the CardioCare program to make significant improvements in patient care for structural heart disease patients at Swedish.

Dr. Barnhart has been a member of several professional societies including the International Society for Heart Transplantation, the Society of Thoracic Surgeons, The Southern Thoracic Surgical Association and others. He has been both a national principal investigator and been involved in various trials as a principal investigator. He has published numerous articles in peer reviewed journals as well as several book chapters.

Dr. Barnhart received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Bridgewater College and his Doctor of Medicine degree from Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine. He completed his general and cardiothoracic surgical residencies at Virginia Commonwealth University, and did additional training at the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health and at Boston Children’s Hospital.