Fred H. Edwards, MD is Director of the STS Research Center and Emeritus Professor of Surgery at the University of Florida. Over the last two decades Dr. Edwards has held numerous leadership positions in The Society of Thoracic Surgeons.  He developed the first national cardiac surgery risk adjustment models for the STS National Database and has had leadership roles in the development of all subsequent models.  From 2004 through 2010, he served as Chairman of the STS National Database.  In 2007, he received the Society of Thoracic Surgeons Distinguished Service Award, which is the highest award given by STS.  In 2009, the University of Kentucky selected Dr. Edwards for its Distinguished Alumnus Award. In 2010 he was appointed Chairman of the STS Council for Quality, Research and Patient Safety and the following year he was appointed to his present position as Chair of the Workforce on Research Development and Director of the STS National Research Center. Dr. Edwards is active in several national quality organizations, serving on the Quality Alliance Steering Committee, the Steering Committee of the AQA, and the Executive Committee of the Surgical Quality Alliance.  He is currently Vice-Chairman of the Surgical Quality Alliance. He is a member of the STS/ACC TVT Registry Steering Committee and is Vice-Chair of the associated Research and Publications Subcommittee.  He has been an active member of numerous TVT Registry initiatives, including the development of several studies based on TVT Registry data, the coordination of TVT projects with industry, and the development of a risk model based on the TVT Registry population.  He has co-authored 7 papers dealing with the registry and has delivered numerous presentations focused on the TVT Registry.