Awad El-Ashry, MD

Dr. Awad El-Ashry is a board-certified cardiac surgeon with Roper St. Francis Physician Partners Cardiac Surgery. He is joining Roper St. Francis Healthcare as the Director of minimally invasive cardiac surgery. He cares for patients with complex heart conditions, with particular expertise in minimally invasive heart valve repair and replacement.

Clinical interests and services include:

• Coronary artery bypass grafting
• Minimally invasive heart valve repair and replacement
• Surgery for aortic aneurysms
• Treatment of cardiac tumors
• Complex and advanced heart surgery

For patients, minimally invasive valve surgery can mean smaller incisions, less pain and a faster return to everyday life. Dr. El-Ashry brings this specialized expertise to the Lowcountry, along with years of experience leading advanced heart programs at major medical centers.

Beyond the operating room, Dr. El-Ashry has spent his career helping move heart surgery forward. He has published widely in his field, contributed chapters to surgical textbooks and taken part in research and clinical trials studying new approaches to treating heart valve disease. He has also helped develop new surgical technology and teaches other surgeons across the country. For his patients, that means care shaped not only by today's best practices, but by a surgeon working to advance what comes next.

Dr. El-Ashry chose medicine out of a passion to help people when they need it most.

He believes that caring for a patient is about far more than the operation itself. Surgical skill matters, but so does everything around it – knowing the person in front of him, connecting with their family and extending genuine compassion through what is often a frightening time. In his view, those human parts of care matter just as much as the medicine.

Nothing is more rewarding to him than seeing his patients recover and improve after surgery.

Dr. El-Ashry is board-certified in both thoracic surgery and general surgery, and he is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons. He earned his medical degree from the University of Alexandria Faculty of Medicine in Egypt and completed his general surgery residency at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where he served as chief resident. He went on to complete a cardiothoracic surgery fellowship at the University of Texas Houston, MD Anderson and Memorial Hermann Heart and Vascular Institute. Additionally, Dr. El-Ashry completed a research fellowship at Yale University. He speaks Arabic.

Outside of work, Dr. El-Ashry stays busy with his three children and enjoys soccer, going to the gym, boating, reading and traveling.