Dr. Michael “Mickey” Ising is a cardiac surgeon at St. Elizabeth who brings the precision of an engineer to every procedure. Before entering medicine, Dr. Ising’s background was in biomedical engineering where he worked in research and development of artificial heart technologies – efforts that resulted in over 40 publications and presentations. He soon realized that rather than designing the artificial devices, he wanted to be directly involved in repairing the real thing – which led him to medical school. Today, Dr. Ising applies that same analytical mindset in the operating room, approaching each case like a systems challenge – where structure, flow and timing must align. His surgical expertise includes complex coronary bypass, minimally invasive valve and aneurysm repair and advanced heart failure therapies – even using the same heart pumps he once helped develop. Dr. Ising returned to Northern Kentucky to serve the community that helped shape him. His philosophy is simple: treat every patient like family – with compassion, clarity and trust.