Sarasota Memorial Hospital’s heart team performed its 1,000th surgery of the year last month, setting a record for the number of surgical heart procedures performed at the hospital in one year. In 2012, Sarasota Memorial partnered with Columbia University Medical Center in New York to build its cardiac care program and recruit a chief of cardiovascular surgery. The hospital recruited Jeffrey Sell, M.D., in 2013 to serve as its new chief. He helped recruit two more cardiac surgeons and expand the specialty services the team provides. Today, the five-surgeon team treats a full range of conditions, with subspecialties that include coronary bypasses, arrhythmia treatment, complex aortic valve replacements, mitral valve replacements and repair and adult congenital heart surgery. Cardiac surgery volumes have recently increased by 15-20 percent each year.