Victor O. Morell, MD

Dr. Morell serves as the Eugene S. Wiener Endowed Chair and Professor and Chair of the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Co-Director of the Heart Institute of UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, and the VP and Chief Strategy Officer of the Heart and Vascular Institute.  He also serves as Program Director of the ACGME-accredited Congenital Cardiac Surgery Fellowship.  Dr. Morell received his medical degree from the Ponce School of Medicine, Ponce, Puerto Rico.  He then completed his surgical residency at Robert Packer Hospital-Guthrie Clinic in Sayre, Pennsylvania, followed by his cardiothoracic surgery fellowship at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center, and congenital cardiothoracic surgery fellowships at Boston Children’s and at the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children in London, England, before joining the medical staff at Children's Hospital of Tampa.  Since being recruited to the University of Pittsburgh and UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh in 2004, Dr. Morell has served in several leadership roles across several entities within our organization.    
 
He is an internationally recognized congenital heart surgeon, particularly known for consistently attaining above national benchmark clinical outcomes and his surgical expertise in transposition of the great arteries.  Dr. Morell’s leadership of the multi-disciplinary UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh Heart Institute has led to UPMC achieving the #8 ranking for Pediatric Cardiology and Heart Surgery programs in the United States by U.S. News and World Report in the most recent voting cycle.  The program has been ranked in the top 10 for the last 5 consecutive years.  Further, the Heart Institute is 1 of only 7 programs nationally to achieve a 3-star ranking in congenital cardiac surgery outcomes as determined by the Society of Thoracic Surgeon’s 117 program pediatric cardiothoracic surgery registry.  Under his leadership, the program has recruited internationally recognized surgeons and cardiologists.  This combination of expertise and unparalleled excellence in clinical outcomes has fostered the development of the Heart Institute into a truly international destination for congenital cardiac care, with a growing number of patients travelling from around the country and world to Pittsburgh for treatment.  
 
As the VP and Chief Strategy Officer and formerly Executive Director of the UPMC Heart and Vascular Institute, a clinical service line comprised of pediatric and adult cardiology and cardiac surgery and most recently vascular and thoracic surgery, that includes over 400 providers and spans over 60 clinical sites.  Under his leadership since 2020, the HVI has emerged as a premier UPMC service line offering integrated, multi-disciplinary care for patients from birth to adulthood.  Recent HVI accomplishments driven by Dr. Morell include improved patient access to care, the introduction of new patient-centric technologies to clinical practice, increased emphasis on value-based care and clinical documentation optimization, strategic consolidation and introduction of new clinical services and programs, and expansion into new markets across Western and Central Pennsylvania, Western Maryland, and southwestern New York.  This has allowed the integrated cardiology and cardiac surgery program to be one of the largest of its kind in the country.