[6] Burke's influential coaches included Patrick Lovell, Ron Edwards, Dave Vierra, Rudy Lapera, and Duane "Buck" Shore.

Notable instructors included Nobel Prize winners, Linus Pauling in biochemistry and Arthur Schawlow in physics.

He walked on and made the Stanford varsity football team as a freshman under NFL Hall of Fame coach Jack Christiansen.

[7] Influential instructors included Hardy Hendren, Paul Buttenweiser, Judah Folkman, and Nobel Prize winner Baruj Benacerraf.

Burke was a student observer for the first heart transplants in New England, performed by Professor John J. Collins, at the Brigham and Women's Hospital.

Burke was selected for General Surgical Residency Training at the Brigham and Women's Hospital, under then Surgeon in Chief John A. Mannick MD, Mosely Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School.

Burke developed the idea that Laser-induced fluorescence spectroscopy could be used to diagnose rejection in transplanted cardiac tissue, thereby avoiding the need for traumatic biopsies.

Building on lessons learned in Boston and Silicon Valley, Burke's program was designed around two key principles: In an effort to reduce cumulative therapeutic trauma, the Miami team unified the efforts of cardiac surgeons and interventional cardiologists, attempting to develop less invasive treatments for a broad range of congenital heart defects.

Burke and associate surgeon Robert Hannan worked with their Director of Perfusion, Jorge W. Ojito, to develop a less traumatic cardiopulmonary bypass technique.

[19] They also designed a miniaturized Cardiopulmonary Support circuit, allowing critically ill patients to be transported by plane, helicopter or ambulance over great distances on full heart lung bypass.

[43] In 2016, an "inoperable" patient with a single lung and hypoplastic left heart syndrome was referred to Nicklaus Children's Hospital.

Burke initiated meetings with hospital administrator Janet Livingstone, CEO John Hillenmeyer, and Medical Director Mark Swanson MD, proposing that the Miami Children's Cardiac Team help rebuild the Arnold Palmer Heart Program.

[58] To attain this resonance, the team continues to develop techniques in intensive care, information management, interventional catheterization, and minimally invasive surgery.

The human side of Burke's congenital heart team at Nicklaus Children's Hospital has been described in parent's websites,[59] and in the media.

[61] Burke was cast as the host of the ABC network television reality program Miracle Workers, which first aired March 6, 2006.