 According to the University of Michigan, he pioneered a surgical approach to treating hypoplastic left heart syndrome, 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.