It wasn’t an event that defined Mark Iannettoni as a doctor, but is one he is proud of as an example of providing comprehensive treatment.

In December, an elderly man was admitted to University Hospitals, where Iannettoni is head of the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, for a procedure that kept him there over the holidays.

The man’s wife recently had died, and the man’s three dogs were his family.

So Iannettoni drove to the man’s house, picked up his dogs and brought the dogs to the hospital.

There, in a hallway near an exit, the man got to spend an hour with his pets during the surprise visit.

“He wasn’t sure what was going on (at first),” Iannettoni said. “He said, ‘Hey, those look like my dogs.’”

Iannettoni refuses to acknowledge that what he did was beyond what most doctors would do. He said similar stories are common at University Hospitals.

“It’s another brick on the reputation of the institution,” he said.

The character of the people here is partly what attracted Iannettoni to Iowa. Originally from upstate New York, he spent his entire medical career at the University of Michigan.

But after making a visit to UI a couple of years ago, Iannettoni and his family were taken with the kindness they encountered. He also was interested in Iowa for professional reasons. Esophageal problems, Iannettoni’s specialty, are on the rise in the Midwest,    largely because of increasing obesity.

“This was an untapped area,” he said.

So he came to University Hospitals in January 2004. Last June, cardiothoracic surgery grew from being a division under surgery to its own department, with Iannettoni as its head.

He said that he’s noticed that at UI, being a doctor means more than just working on a patient. As he found out last Christmas, it can even involve being a dog sitter.

“My job in operating on people, the technical part of it, is trying to save their lives,” he said. “I think the difference I’ve noticed here is that people try to improve people’s lives, too.”

— Gregg Hennigan

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