Assoc Professor Jurgen Passage is a Cardiothoracic Surgeon with a special interest in heart valve surgery, including minimally invasive valve surgery, MitraClip, and TAVI procedures.
He commenced public practice as a Cardiothoracic Surgeon in 2009 and currently works publicly at Fiona Stanley Hospital. He established the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery at St John of God Subiaco Hospital in 2012 and continues as Head of the Department.
Jurgen Passage completed his medical degree in Leipzig, Germany in 1998. He completed the Australian Medical Council Certificate in 2000. He undertook post-graduate training in General and Cardiothoracic Surgery in Brisbane and Sydney and completed his FRACS (Fellowship of the Royal Australian College of Surgeons) in 2008.
Jurgen Passage spent 14 months at the University of Leipzig Heart Centre in Germany as a Mitral Valve Fellow in 2008-2009. He gained extensive training and experience in minimally invasive mitral valve surgery at this world leading centre. In October 2009, he started Western Australia's first minimally invasive mitral valve surgery programme at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital. He has performed this procedure on more than 700 Western Australian patients in both public and private practice. In 2010 Jurgen Passage founded the AMIMS Workshop (Australian Minimally Invasive Mitral Valve Surgery) to train surgeons from Australia and overseas in this technique. He is also accredited to perform minimally invasive transfemoral mitral valve procedures, including MitraClip, and TAVI procedures for aortic stenosis.
Jurgen Passage maintains an active commitment to ongoing training and innovation. He is an accredited supervisor of post-graduate training with the Royal Australian College of Surgeons. He was involved with standard setting for minimally invasive mitral valve surgery as the lead author of the Australian and New Zealand Society of Cardiac and Thoracic Surgeons (ANZSCTS) guidelines for this surgery. He is a member of the Cardiac Accreditation Services ATVT Committee, which is responsible for accrediting TAVI practitioners. He is a regular reviewer for a number of peer reviewed surgical journals. He is a member of ANZSCTS and formerly served as Younger Fellow on the Executive Committee. He is a member of the National Steering Committee for the ANZSCTS Database Program, which monitors cardiothoracic surgical outcomes. He is an Adjunct Associate Professor in the School of Medicine at the University of Notre Dame Australia (Fremantle) and a Senior Clinical Lecturer at the University of Western Australia. He is actively involved in research in Australia and has an ongoing relationship with the University of Leipzig Heart Centre.
