1994 - Dr. Greg Ribakove, Associate Professor of Surgery at NYU School of Medicine, and Chief of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Bellevue Hospital Center, introduced the revolutionary ‘port-access’ procedure to his colleagues at NYU a sabbatical at Stanford University.

1994-1996 - Drs. Galloway, Grossi, Ribakove, and Colvin develop a clinically applicable minimally invasive system for cardiac surgery with the NYU Research Laboratory.

1996 - Drs. Colvin, Galloway, Ribakove, and Grossi perform the world's first minimally invasive mitral valve repair, accessing the heart via small chest incisions allowing the patient to recover more quickly than traditional open-heart surgery. That same year, Dr. Colvin and his team performed the first minimally invasive triple bypass surgery.

1996 - NYU cardiac surgeons participated in one of the first robotic surgery clinical trials. Today, they are evaluating a novel robotic surgical system to perform minimally invasive surgical procedures, particularly those involving repair of the mitral valve.

2001 - Drs. Colvin and Galloway announce a major advance in heart valve repair technology with the launch of the C-G Future Band. Today, over 200 surgeons from around the world have now trained at NYU in these advanced surgical techniques for mitral valve repair.