Robert Hanfland, MD - Pediatric and Congenital Heart Surgeon

Pediatric and Congenital Heart Surgeon

Dr. Robert Hanfland is a congenital heart surgeon with the Heart Institute at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital. He earned his medical degree from Southern Illinois University in Springfield. Dr. Hanfland completed a residency in general surgery at University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics in Iowa City. He then pursued a fellowship in cardiothoracic surgery at University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics and an additional fellowship in congenital heart surgery at Children’s Hospital Colorado in Denver. His clinical interests include ethics in medicine, pediatric cardiology, congenital heart surgery, hypoplastic left heart syndrome and other complicated pediatric heart anomalies.

Dr. Hanfland is board certified in general surgery and thoracic surgery. He is a member of the Society of Thoracic Surgeons and an associate member of Women in Thoracic Surgery. His work has been published in peer-reviewed articles and he has received numerous teaching excellence awards. Dr. Hanfland has been part of national committees for the Congenital Heart Surgeons Society, as well as the Society of Thoracic Surgeons. He also has been involved in international mission work including serving as a consultant for the Congenital Heart Institute/Pediatric Clinic University Medical Center in Ljublijan, Slovenia, and participating in a congenital heart surgery medical mission trip to Incor Hospital in Santa Cruz, Bolivia.

Dr. Hanfland is employed by Nicklaus Children’s Pediatric Specialists, the physician-led multispecialty group practice of Nicklaus Children’s Health System. 

The Heart Institute at Nicklaus Children’s, a world leader in pediatric cardiology and cardiovascular surgery for the care of children with congenital heart disease, serves as a beacon to families confronting the reality of a child or newborn with a heart defect. It offers the most innovative and least invasive approaches to the treatment of congenital heart disease, including many first-in-the-world procedures that were pioneered right here by the Heart Institute’s own internationally renowned cardiologists and cardiovascular surgeons.