Robert Kleinloog qualified form the Potchefstroom and Pretoria Universities and registered as a Cardiothoracic Surgeon in 1990 after admission to the College of Medicine of SA with a Fellowship in Cardiothoracic Surgery.

He remained a consultant CT surgeon with the University of KZN Medical School while in full time private ptactice in Durban. He established the Transplant Unit in 1996 and remains the head if the unit currently at the Ethekwini Heart Hospital where he continues to practice. He is the  immediate past president of the Society of Cardiothoracic Surgeons of SA, past president of the World Society of Cardiovascular Surgeons, Secretary of the SA Heart Association and American Association of Thoracic Surgeons.