Klaus Kühn, MD
Board Member
2025–present

“For me, this is a great opportunity to learn from Heart to Heart how to develop a program, how to organize more hands-on training for our specialists at all levels, and how to integrate new, more complex procedures into our system. I’m honored to have been invited to join the Board.”

Klaus Kühn, MD is an adult cardiac surgeon at Hospital San Juan de Dios (HSJD), one of the three public cardiac centers serving Costa Rica’s population of 5 million. Dr. Kühn is a big-picture thinker: pragmatic, strategic, and heavily invested in the future of cardiac medicine in Costa Rica. He continually looks for ways to optimize the cardiac care ecosystem in a small country where capacity hasn’t kept pace with increased demand. Dr. Kühn is also an educator. As an associate professor at the University of Costa Rica, he teaches fifth-year medical school students about the anatomy and physiology of the human heart—and how it can be repaired through a range of cardiovascular surgical procedures. Dr. Kühn also currently coordinates the university’s residency program for graduates intending to specialize in cardiac surgery.

Dr. Kühn has served as Heart to Heart’s liaison at all three public adult cardiac centers in Costa Rica. In 2023, he hosted a Heart to Heart training mission at HSJD to introduce minimally invasive surgical techniques to his team—which includes three additional adult cardiac surgeons. Having four adult cardiac surgeons at HSJD who are able to perform such procedures will not only benefit individual patients, but will also be advantageous to the country’s healthcare system as a whole.

For our follow-up mission in 2024, Dr. Kuhn arranged for us to also operate side-by-side with his colleagues at Hospital México and Hospital Calderón Guardia—deepening and broadening our on-site training in real time. Dr. Kühn’s cardiac team has successfully incorporated minimally invasive surgical techniques, more than doubling the number of mini-thoracotomies; these now represent one-third of all open heart procedures performed at HSJD.

Our first board member from a partner site, Dr. Kühn is an articulate and respected advocate for increasing access to timely, comprehensive cardiac care. His insights on the Costa Rican healthcare system and his insider perspective on the competing demands for resources will help accelerate our Costa Rica Nationwide Cardiac Care Campaign. As a clinician and educator in the rapidly evolving field of adult cardiac surgery, Dr. Kühn complements the medical expertise of fellow Board members Dr. Frank Cetta (diagnostic and interventional, pediatric and adult congenital cardiology), Dr. Nilas Young (adult cardiac surgery), and Dr. Gary Raff (pediatric cardiac surgery).

We are excited for Dr. Kühn to join the Board and look forward to his contributions.