Can Yerebakan, M.D., is associate chief of Cardiac Surgery and professor of surgery and pediatrics at the George Washington University School of Medicine & Health Sciences.

He specializes in hybrid treatment of hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS) and is internationally recognized for his contributions to the field of congenital cardiac surgery and for providing regenerative therapies for end-stage heart failure in children. Dr. Yerebakan comes to Children's National from the prestigious Pediatric Heart Center Giessen in Germany, where he served as cardiac surgeon and associate professor of cardiac surgery at the Justus-Liebig-University.

He has authored more than 100 peer-reviewed scientific papers in three different languages and has given numerous presentations on congenital cardiac surgery around the world. In addition to receiving several awards for his research, Dr. Yerebakan was recognized by the European Association of Cardiothoracic Surgery with a prestigious award for his work with using preclinical models for congenital heart surgery in 2009. He was also recognized by the German Society for Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery with the prestigious Ernst-Derra Award for his research on regenerative therapies for congenital heart disease in 2011. His research interests also include alternative treatment for dilated cardiomyopathy in children.

Dr. Yerebakan serves on the editorial board of The Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery (JTCVS), one of the top journals in cardiovascular surgery/medicine, and as associate editor of the Interactive Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery Journal, a peer-reviewed journal of the European Association of Cardiothoracic Surgery. He is an active reviewer in numerous peer-reviewed journals for cardiovascular surgery and medicine and is also a member of the German Society of Cardio-Thoracic and Vascular Surgery, the European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery and the Turkish Society for Cardiovascular Surgery.

He earned a medical degree from Albert-Ludwigs University in Freiburg, Germany. He completed his residency in cardiac surgery at two premier centers in Germany followed by a fellowship in pediatric cardiac surgery at Children's National.

Dr. Yerebakan’s goal as a pediatric cardiac surgeon is to introduce alternative, minimally-invasive procedures for the treatment of children with heart disease. He feels fortunate to dedicate his life and career to providing a healthy future for his patients.