Yihan Lin, MD, MPH, is a board-certified cardiothoracic surgeon and Associate Professor at UW Medicine. Dr. Lin treats the full range of adult heart conditions including coronary artery disease, heart valve disease, and aortic disease. She also performs robotic minimally invasive coronary artery bypass (MIDCAB) surgery and is part of the cardiac transplantation team.

Dr. Lin is deeply committed to training the next generation of heart surgeons. She serves as one of eight program directors for the Society of Thoracic Surgeons Thoracic Surgery Boot Camp, a national training course for cardiothoracic surgery residents. She has received multiple teaching awards and leads curriculum development efforts in both simulation-based training and surgical education research. At UW Medicine, she works closely with residents, fellows, and medical students — bringing hands-on mentorship to every level of training.

With more than a decade of global health experience in Rwanda, Kenya, and Uganda, Dr. Lin partners with local institutions to strengthen surgical care and build training capacity in places where it's needed most. She has collaborated with the World Health Organization and Ministries of Health to advance access to heart surgery in low-resource settings. At UW Medicine, she works with the Department of Global Health to grow these partnerships and create opportunities for faculty, fellows, residents, and students to engage in global cardiac surgery.

Dr. Lin earned her medical degree from the University of Colorado School of Medicine and her Master of Public Health from the Harvard School of Public Health. She completed her general surgery residency and cardiothoracic surgery fellowship at the University of Colorado and served as a Paul Farmer Global Surgery Research Fellow at Harvard Medical School. Before joining UW Medicine, she was a Clinical Assistant Professor at Stanford University and a cardiothoracic surgeon at the VA Palo Alto Hospital. She is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons and a member of the Western Thoracic Surgical Association, Society of Thoracic Surgeons, and American Heart Association. She has published more than 60 peer-reviewed manuscripts and co-authored a World Health Organization textbook on national surgical planning.