William "Cliff" Kitchens, M.D. is a cardiovascular and thoracic surgeon who performs cardiac operations including coronary artery bypass, valve replacement, ascending aorta with root replacement, ablation for atrial fibrillation and reoperative cardiac surgery.
He also performs robotic-assisted thoracoscopic lung cancer surgery and serves as the surgical director for the Chest Center of the Carolinas.
As director, Dr. Kitchens works closely with an expert multidisciplinary team to coordinate timely, comprehensive care for patients. A primary focus of his leadership is identifying and treating early stage lung cancer, which has the best prognosis.
He joined FirstHealth in 2017 after practicing with his father in Augusta, GA. A magna cum laude graduate of Washington and Lee University in Lexington, VA, he earned his medical degree from Emory University in Atlanta. He completed his residency in general surgery at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where, as a postdoctoral fellow under an NIH T32 institutional grant, he conducted research in intimal hyperplasia, trauma, sepsis and inflammation.
Fellowship-trained in cardiothoracic surgery at the University of Utah Affiliated Hospitals in Salt Lake City, he has nearly 30 years of surgical experience.
