Dr. Johnston is a nationally recognized cardiothoracic surgeon and is the current surgical director of Northwestern Medicine’s Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute and chief of the division of cardiac surgery at Northwestern Memorial Hospital and Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

Dr. Johnston earned his medical degree from Harvard Medical School in 1998 before completing his clinical training in general surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. He was awarded the Edward D. Churchill Fellowship, the American College of Surgeons Resident Research Scholarship and an NIH National Research Service Award for his research in the immunology of heart and lung transplantation. He trained in thoracic and cardiovascular surgery at the Cleveland Clinic, including a focused fellowship in endovascular surgery. In 2008, he joined the Cleveland Clinic as a staff surgeon.