Charles D. Fraser, Jr., MD

Clinical Biography

Charles Fraser, Jr., MD, is a board-certified congenital heart surgeon who serves as both the Executive Director of the Institute for Cardiovascular Health, a clinical partnership between Ascension Seton and UT Health Austin, and the Chief of Pediatric and Congenital Heart Surgery for the Texas Center for Pediatric and Congenital Heart Disease, a clinical partnership between Dell Children’s Medical Center and UT Health Austin. He specializes in the surgical treatment of infants, children, and adults with congenital cardiac disease, with emphasis on complex neonatal repairs of serious cardiac malformations. Additionally, Dr. Fraser is a professor in both the Dell Medical School Department of Pediatrics and the Dell Medical School Department of Surgery and Perioperative Care.

Dr. Fraser earned his medical degree from The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. He completed a residency in surgery at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and a fellowship in pediatric heart surgery at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne, Australia. He has developed dedicated programs in pediatric cardiac anesthesiology, perfusion, and cardiopulmonary transplantation and is a longstanding advocate of public reporting of surgical outcomes and transparency.

Dr. Fraser has over 300 peer-reviewed publications. He implanted the world’s first DeBakey Child™ Cardiac assist device and served as the National Principal Investigator of a first ever, pivotal, multi-center pediatric ventricular assist device trial to assess the safety and benefits of the Berlin Heart Pediatric EXCOR® device. This study culminated in device approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and is the first, and currently only, device approved for durable mechanical circulatory support in small children and babies.

Dr. Fraser is a pediatric congenital heart surgeon with UT Health Austin.