Meet Dr. Jeff Jacobs, a pediatric cardiac surgeon and Professor of Surgery and Pediatrics at University of Florida and UF Health Shands Children’s Hospital since 2020. Dr. Jacobs has had a rich and impactful career and has performed heart surgery on over 4,500 patients over the past 30 years! Before joining UF Health, Dr. Jacobs worked as a cardiac surgeon at Johns Hopkins All Children’s for 21 years from 1998 to 2019, where he was Chief of the Division of Cardiovascular Surgery and Professor of Surgery and Pediatrics at Johns Hopkins University. Not only is Dr. Jacobs a phenomenal surgeon, but he is also highly accomplished in other areas too! 

          So, what was Dr. Jacobs’ educational journey? Dr. Jacobs majored in chemistry and minored in religion at the University of Miami. Because Dr. Jacobs knew he wanted to become a surgeon, he chose to minor in religion, so he could better understand his patients and their needs. At University of Miami, he did a combined 6-year BS/MD program called the Honors Program in Medicine, and in 1988, he received his Doctor of Medicine with Research Distinction. After this 6-year program, he completed a 5-year General Surgery Residency and a 2-year Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery Residency at the University of Miami. Finally, for his Fellowship, he trained in pediatric cardiothoracic surgery at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children in London. 

          Believe it or not, while a High School Student at Dunedin High School, Dr. Jacobs worked as a fry cook in a fish restaurant. Throughout high school, he would work at the fish store, cooking fish, for 40 hours per week during the school year and 60 hours a week in the summer. Pretty intense! When he went away to college, he returned to the same job during his first winter break. However, when school started after that break, Dr. Jacobs started exploring summer jobs that the University of Miami offered for students. He was able to find a summer position as a research assistant at the University of Miami School of Medicine. Eventually, as a student, he had the opportunity to do research for the heart surgeons at University of Miami! His passion truly bloomed when he witnessed his first surgery on a 0-day-old baby with Total Anomalous Pulmonary Venous Connection.

          Dr. Jacobs said, “The greatest reward is what we get to do every day: we get to operate on the hearts of little babies, who without surgery, would die, and we give them the chance to live.” After 30 years of being a surgeon, a lot of what he does now is teaching other aspiring surgeons as Professor of Surgery and Pediatrics at UF’s College of Medicine. “I think that the two things that motivate me professionally are taking care of my patients so they do well, and teaching my students, so one day they will be able to do the same.”

          In addition to being a surgeon and a professor, Dr. Jacobs also works as an editor for multiple cardiac journals, including Editor-in-Chief for Cardiology in the Young since 2013, Associate Editor for World Journal for Pediatric and Congenital Heart Surgery since 2009, and Senior Editor for Congenital Heart Surgery for Annals of Thoracic Surgery since 2022. He has also been Senior Editor for Pediatric and Congenital Heart Surgery for the Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) Cardiothoracic Surgery Consult (formerly E-Book) since 2020. In addition to the multitude of journals to which he contributes, he has also published 874 peer-reviewed publications, 67 book chapters and 10 books. Dr. Jacobs views writing as a way to share his knowledge with the world. 

Along with teaching at UF, Dr. Jacobs also works with Shorecrest Preparatory School’s Pre-Med program. Dr. Jacobs and Lisa Peck, who runs the Peck Center for Medical Sciences, have been leading students through heart dissections each year since Valentine’s Day in 2015! 

          In addition to the volumes of research he has completed, Dr. Jacobs also does charitable heart surgery in Jamaica. Dr. Jacobs is the Co-Founder and President of Cardiac Kids Foundation of Florida. Since 2006, the Cardiac Kids team has flown to Jamaica to perform heart surgery for 1-2 weeks every year. They have performed heart surgery on 163 babies and children in Jamaica, and they collaborate with the Bustamante Hospital for children in Kingston, Jamaica. Not only do they perform surgeries, but they help the Jamaican team to develop their own cardiac surgery program. 

          Dr. Jacobs’ schedule, as you can imagine, is very busy. He is in the OR roughly 5 days a week. He usually works from 7am to 9pm, but once or twice a week when he has heart transplants, he may work late into the night.

          That’s a lot of work, so how does Dr. Jacobs maintain a good work-life balance? He gives a lot of credit to his wife Stacy and her unwavering support. Additionally, Dr. Jacobs likes to spend his weekends either going on runs or visiting his two kids at college. 

          Dr. Jacobs says that the hardest part about his job is when patients don’t survive, but fortunately, the mortality rate is rapidly dropping. Now, heart surgery is far less risky, and roughly 97 out of every 100 patients survive. 

          Finally, Dr. Jacobs recommends that anyone who is interested in medicine should start in high school. He advises students to focus on science and math courses, and excel at those, so they can get into the best college possible. Then work hard in college to get into medical school. The two key words he emphasizes are “work hard.” He says, “There were a lot of Friday nights that I sat in the library at the University of Miami studying when I could have been at a fraternity party, but I knew that’s where I wanted to be.”