Over the past 15 years, one of the biggest debates in cardiovascular medicine has been whether patients with severe aortic stenosis should be treated with either the TAVR procedure or open heart surgery.

I’ve had a unique perspective on that debate. I helped organize one of the region’s early heart team programs when TAVR first emerged in the United States in late 2011 and early 2012. Years later, I served as a principal investigator for one of the Medtronic low-risk TAVR trials.

During my career, I’ve also performed nearly 9,000 open heart and lung operations.

What I’ve learned is that medicine is not about choosing sides. It’s not TAVR versus surgery. It’s not cardiologists versus surgeons.

It’s about patients.

Some patients are best treated with TAVR, the minimally invasive procedure that allows us to replace diseased aortic valves without opening the chest. Other patients are best treated with surgery, which continues to provide outstanding and durable results.

Many patients benefit from having both cardiologists and cardiac surgeons sit down together to determine the best treatment plan. That’s what we call the heart team.

The heart team has been one of the great success stories in cardiovascular medicine. Different specialties bring together different perspectives, all focused on a single goal: doing what’s best for the patient.

Every day, patients place an incredible amount of trust in us. They don’t care who performs the procedure. They don’t care about titles or specialties. They simply want the best outcome.

And that’s exactly how it should be.