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Dr. Wilson Ko immigrated to San Francisco, California with his family at the age of 12, and was naturalized as a U.S. citizen at the age of 18. He was selected to San Francisco’s premiere public college preparatory Lowell High School where he graduated in the top 1% of his class with Scroll Honorary distinction and achieved the highest scores for the advanced placement examinations in biology, chemistry, physics, and calculus. He attended University of California at Berkeley and graduated with distinct honor in Biochemistry. This was followed by a medical degree from Chicago Medical School where he graduated as valedictorian.
He was selected as one of eight young doctors in an extremely competitive postgraduate training in general surgery for five years under G. Tom Shires, M.D. in the prestigious New York Hospital—Cornell University Medical College in a year when over one hundred applicants were interviewed. During this training, he spent an additional two years of cardiothoracic surgery research under Karl Krieger, M.D. from which he published 32 peer reviewed scientific papers.
He was then selected in an equally competitive and highly sought after cardiothoracic surgery training program for the next two years also at New York Hospital—Cornell University Medical Center under the direction of O. Wayne Isom, M.D. Immediately after his surgical training, he was recruited to the Cornell faculty in the department of cardiothoracic surgery. In the ensuing 11 years, he was promoted from assistant to associate professor. He was a founder of a new Cornell satellite heart surgery program at New York Hospital of Queens where he served as the director from 1999 to 2006.
During his 20 year tenure at Cornell, he published over 45 peer review scientific papers, presented findings in numerous local, national, and international medical conferences, served as a frequent lecturer and visiting professor in addition to have developed a large clinical practice that is one of the busiest in the New York metropolitan area. With aims to fulfill his cultural heritage, he specializes in caring for the large Chinese American population in New York. He was the first who broke the cultural barrier by bringing numerous non-English speaking Chinese patients to New York Hospital. As one of his mentors, Karl Krieger, M.D., once said, “It is wonderful that you have opened up this world class service at Cornell to all these immigrants who would not have had the opportunity to receive our wonderful service.”
In 2006, he was recruited to be the professor and chief of cardiothoracic surgery at the State University of New York—Downstate University Medical Center in Brooklyn, where he is currently forming a new multidisciplinary team with aims for a center of excellence. The new personnel added in the team in the first year include surgeons, director of the cardiothoracic surgery intensive care unit, physician assistant in the operating room, research scientists, nurse practitioner and office staff.
He is currently involved in many new program development, training and education of cardiothoracic surgery residents, general surgery residents, medical students, and involved in the admission committee of the medical school.
The new surgical programs introduced over the first year of tenure include:
 Surgical ablation for atrial arrhythmia,
Endovascular stent-graft treatment for thoracic aortic aneurysm,
Complex mitral valve repair,
Endoscopic harvest of radial artery for coronary bypass.
In collaboration with the heart failure center in the division of cardiology, plans will be made to develop an implantable ventricular assist device program for patients with end staged heart failure waiting for transplant and for those who are excluded as candidates for transplant. New research projects in collaboration with basic scientists include (1) myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury, (2) the use of diffuse optical tomography to measure brain perfusion during cardiopulmonary bypass used in cardiac surgery, and many clinical reports including (1) off-pump coronary artery bypass in one hundred octogenarian patients, (2) the use of recombinant factor VIIa as a rescue for severe post-cardiotomy coagulopathy.
Dr. Ko has been a visiting professor in the First Municipal Hospital of Guangzhou (Canton, China) for three consecutive years, where he gave lectures and performed surgeries to demonstrate the modern American techniques in heart surgery. Subsequently, he had received surgeons from that hospital for advance training at New York Hospital of Queens. He has been active in serving the Chinese American Community in New York in multiple fronts. He served on the board of directors for eight years, and then acted as the treasurer, vice-president, and now the president of the Chinese American Medical Society with over one thousand physician members. Through this New York based society, he has contributed to many community services such as health education seminars, regular health related articles in Chinese newspaper, and radio programs, press releases regarding urgent health issues.
The society initiated “healthy heart” food education program for local restaurants, annual free flu vaccination, and financially supported many community based research programs related to hepatitis, metabolic syndrome, osteoporosis, HIV and others. He presides over ten scholarships and research grants for Chinese American medical students annually. He currently serves on the board of directors for the American Cancer Society—East Asian Unit based in Flushing, Queens. The Unit serves as a community resource for education, healthcare referral, counseling, and cancer support groups.
He is currently the president of the China Aids Fund, which has had two successful fund raising galas in New York. The net proceeds of more than half a million dollars has funded local HIV related programs and more importantly has funded educational and support programs in China for orphans, pregnant women and alike. He has recently led the Downstate Chinese American medical students to have the first free flu vaccine program in Brooklyn Chinatown.
As the president of Chinese American Medical Society, he has plans to work closely with the Charles B. Wang Chinatown Health Clinic and the Chinese American Independent Physician Association to formulate meaningful community based research projects to elucidate data for the first time on the ethnic differences in common medical illnesses among Chinese Americans.
For his academic and clinical achievements, he has been consistently listed in the Castle Connolly Guide to New York Metro Area Top Doctors, and New York Magazine Best Doctors list. For his dedication to community and charitable work, he was awarded the prestigious Ellis Island Medal of Honor in 2008.
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