Dr. Ara Klijian

MD | Managing Partner

Dr. Klijian was born and raised in New York where he graduated medical school at Albany Medical College. He completed General Surgery training at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York and specialty training at Memorial-Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Dr. Klijian was a Cardiothoracic Surgery fellow at University of California San Diego (UCSD) and served as Chairman of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Sharp Grossmont Hospital (SGH). Dr. Klijian is also the Chief of Surgery at Sharp Grossmont and serves as the Director of the Minimally Invasive Cardiovascular & Thoracic Surgical Institute of San Diego.

Dr. Klijian is licensed to practice in both California and New York and is a Fellow of the International College of Surgeons, distinguished Faculty of the National Academy of Medicine, and member of the Society of Thoracic Surgeons. He has moderated, served as Senior Faculty, and presented at numerous conferences including International Society of Minimally Invasive Cardiothoracic Surgery, the World Congress of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Chest, Society of Critical Care Medicine, and American Thoracic Society Meetings. Dr. Klijian has been selected by his peers to the San Diego Medical Society and San Diego Magazine's Top Doctors List since 2017.

Dr. Klijian has published extensively and is on the editorial boards of Cardiovascular Surgery Journal and Clinics in Surgery. He pioneered a new procedure known as AVATS (Awake Video Assisted Thoracic Surgery) which allows for surgery on the lungs while under sedation, avoiding a general anesthetic, via small key-hole incisions. This technique has reduced length of stay and has improved outcomes after complex lung surgery. He also developed the ERAS (Enhanced Recovery After Surgery) pathways within the Sharp Hospital system.