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Who

One of the city's top heart surgeons, Isom heads the department of cardiothoracic surgery at Weill Cornell.

Backstory

A Texas native, Isom graduated from UT Southwestern's med school and completed his general residency in Dallas before heading to New York in 1970 to complete his cardiothoracic training at NYU. Isom remained at NYU until the mid-'80s, when he was recruited by Cornell to serve as chair of the cardiothoracic surgery department. Since then, the department has performed over 20,000 open-heart procedures and Isom has become one of the nation's leading cardiac surgeons. He's also a leading mentor in the field: He's been responsible for training over 50 cardiothoracic surgeons now in practice around the country. Isom's right hand at Cornell is Dr. Karl Krieger, the vice chair of the department and a highly regarded cardiac surgeon in his own right.

Of note

Isom may be best known for the famous patients he's had over the years, including Larry King (quintuple bypass), Charlie Rose (mitral valve replacemement), Regis Philbin (triple bypass), and David Letterman (quintuple bypass), who famously invited Isom on his show to thank him after he recovered from surgery. One celeb patient he missed out on: Bill Clinton. Isom was in the Hamptons when he got the call about an unidentified VIP patient. Rather than miss out on his tee time, he suggested the caller to call Columbia's Craig Smith instead.

Personal

Isom and his wife, Pat, live on East 68th Street and have a summer house in East Hampton. They have five kids.

Off hours

Isom likes to play golf, and he's good at it, too. Golf Digest has him tied for 243rd place in their annual ranking of the "250 Best Golfing Docs" in America. He also likes to fly. He's the owner of a Cessna 182T, a single-engine, four-seat plane.