Dr. Joseph Turek

Joseph W. Turek, MD, PhD, MBA is an academic pediatric cardiac surgeon at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. Since 2017, Dr. Turek has served as chief of pediatric cardiac surgery and executive co-director of Duke Children’s Pediatric & Congenital Heart Center. Prior to Duke, he served in a similar leadership role at the University of Iowa Stead Family Children’s Hospital from 2012-2017.

A native of Illinois, Dr. Turek graduated from Northwestern University with a degree in biochemistry and received his MD/PhD (pharmacology) from the University of Illinois in Chicago with Alpha Omega Alpha distinction. He completed his general surgery education at Duke University, where he also finished a cardiothoracic surgery residency. During this time, he served as a visiting congenital heart surgery fellow at Texas Children’s Hospital. He completed a congenital cardiac surgery fellowship at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia in 2011. He received his MBA with a concentration in Health Sector Management from Duke’s Fuqua School of Business in 2020.

Board certified in general surgery, thoracic surgery and congenital cardiac surgery, Dr. Turek has been one of the foremost innovators of the last decade in congenital heart surgery, developing operations, modifying techniques and introducing new products and procedures to children and adults with congenital cardiac disease. His clinical passion and expertise lies in high complexity neonatal heart surgery.

Academically, Dr. Turek has published over 100 peer-reviewed manuscripts. He maintains an active and well-funded research laboratory with projects spanning from basic science to translational to clinical research, in areas such as heart transplantation tolerance, Marfan syndrome, and alternate perfusion strategies for aortic arch reconstruction. He is also active in national and international cardiothoracic societies.