University of Michigan Health System
Michigan Medicine (University of Michigan Health System or UMHS before 2017) is the wholly owned academic medical center of the University of Michigan, a public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Michigan Medicine includes the Universi ...
most of his career.
Bove was raised in New York City. He earned his undergraduate degree at the
College of the Holy Cross
The College of the Holy Cross is a private, Jesuit liberal arts college in Worcester, Massachusetts, about 40 miles (64 km) west of Boston. Founded in 1843, Holy Cross is the oldest Catholic college in New England and one of the oldest ...
, earned his medical degree from
Albany Medical College
Albany Medical College (AMC) is a private medical school in Albany, New York. It was founded in 1839 by Alden March and James H. Armsby and is one of the oldest medical schools in the nation. The college is part of the Albany Medical Center, which ...
in 1972, and went to University of Michigan for his residency. He completed that in 1980, then after a sojourn at
Great Ormond Street Hospital
Great Ormond Street Hospital (informally GOSH or Great Ormond Street, formerly the Hospital for Sick Children) is a children's hospital located in the Bloomsbury area of the London Borough of Camden, and a part of Great Ormond Street Hospital ...
as a fellow, spent five years as a surgeon at State University of New York in Syracuse before being recruited back to Michigan in 1985 to become head of the pediatric cardiac surgery division.
According to the University of Michigan, he pioneered a surgical approach to treating
hypoplastic left heart syndrome
Hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS) is a rare congenital heart defect in which the left side of the heart is severely underdeveloped and incapable of supporting the systemic circulation. It is estimated to account for 2-3% of all congenital hea ...
, a birth defect that was always fatal; his approach was controversial at first but since then has become widely adopted.
In 2006 Bove, who was a director of the American Board of Thoracic Surgery, was appointed by the board to chair a committee to develop written and oral examinations and application process for a new certificate program in congenital heart surgery.
By 2012 he had performed 10,000 heart surgeries at Michigan mostly on babies, and that year he was also appointed chair of a newly created department of cardiac surgery at Michigan.