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Dr. Peter Kent Smith, MD, Chief of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery at Duke University Medical Center, is a heart surgeon who specializes in coronary artery bypass, grafting, and valve replacement. This collection contains 2 oral history interviews conducted on July 22, 1994 and January 3, 1996 by Dr. James Gifford. Both interviews are included in the Dr. David Sabiston Oral History Project. In the July 22, 1994 interview Smith discusses his background in research and the operation of his laboratory. In the January 3, 1996 interview Smith discusses his career as a thoracic surgeon, and particularly his work as Chief of the Division of Thoracic Surgery.

Dr. Ross M. Ungerleider, MD, MBA, is a surgeon, researcher, author, public speaker, surgical educator, and coach. He completed his residency in General and Thoracic Surgery at Duke University Medical Center, joining the faculty in 1987 where he rose to tenured professor by 1996. In addition to this, he also held the roles of Chief of Pediatric Cardiac Surgery, Surgical Director and co-founder of Pediatric and Cardiac Intensive Care Unit, and Surgical Director and founder of the EMCO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenator) program. He remained at Duke until 2001 when he left to help build children's heart programs and teach leadership and teamwork at numerous other medical institutions. He is recognized for pioneering the use of echocardiography in the operating room to evaluate the heart anatomy at the time of repair, and to assess the adequacy of the repair prior to the patient leaving the operating room, providing care for more than 7,000 hearts of infants and children with congenital heart disease. This collection contains 1 oral history interview conducted on July 22, 1994 by Dr. James Gifford. In this interview, which is included in the Dr. David Sabiston Oral History Project, Ungerleider discusses his personal background, education and surgical training, research experiences at Duke and the research being done in his laboratory, the importance of the research work done in laboratories as a means to teach the next generation of doctors, building the Pediatric Cardiac Surgery and ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenator) Programs at Duke, and how Sabiston's leadership of the Department of Surgery created an environment that promoted academic surgery that attracted excellent residents.