Voting Experts

Dr. Jeffrey Barkun received his medical degree at McGill University. He completed his General Surgery training at the universities of McGill and Cologne (Germany); and his subsequent HBP and Transplantation fellowship at the University of Toronto. He holds a Master’s degree in Clinical Epidemiology from McGill University.He is past Head of General Surgery at both the McGill University Health Center (MUHC) and at McGill University where he is a full professor of Surgery. He is also Chief Medical Information Officer for the MUHC.He has authored or co-authored over 150 peer-reviewed manuscripts and chapters and has held multiple grants in the areas of biliary lithiasis, pancreatic cancer, liver transplantation, and the evaluation of new technologies especially as they apply to trials in Surgery. He is involved in administrative and funding review committees for several provincial, national and international associations/agencies and is on the editorial board of several peer-reviewed journals, including Annals of Surgery.

Dr. Stephen Barnes is an academic acute care surgeon and researcher with significant expertise in the care of the acutely ill and injured, Dr Barnes has served or continues to serve in leadership roles within the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma, Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma, the Central Surgical Association and the American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma.  Board certified in general surgery with added qualifications in surgical critical care, he completed two additional years of fellowship training in acute care surgery and minimally invasive surgery.  Dr. Barnes began his career with the United States Air Force, caring for those injured in Iraq and Afghanistan with responsibilities for both forward surgical care and global patient movement. For the last decade, he has served the Chief of the Division of Acute Care Surgery, Trauma, Burns and Surgical Critical Care at the University of Missouri’s Frank L. Mitchell Jr. MD Trauma Center.

Graduate of the General Surgery program of the Jose R. Reyes Memorial Medical Center in Manila in 1999. He took his General Surgery specialty board in 2000 and is a Diplomate of the Philippine Board of Surgery. He is a fellow of the Philippine College of Surgeons, the American College of Surgeons, the Philippine Society of General Surgeons and the Philippine Association of Laparoscopic and Endoscopic Surgeons (PALES). He is also a co-founder of the Philippine Hernia Society.He has special interest in Minimally Invasive Surgery. He took several advance courses and programs in MIS to advance his skills.At present, he holds several positions in his country notable of which, as the Executive Director of the Philippine Center for Advanced Surgery of the Cardinal Santos Medical Center. It is the first and foremost MIS training center in the Philippines. He also serves as one of the board of Directors for PALES and heads the Committee on Surgical Training. He is the current President of the Philippine Hernia Society, General Surgery Section Head and Section Chief of the Minimally Invasive sections of the Batangas Medical Center.Internationally, He sits as one of the Board of Directors of the Asia Endo Surgery Task Force (AETF) and Asia Pacific Endo Laparoscopic Surgery Group (APELS), Joint- Secretary General of  Asia Pacific Hernia Society (APHS) and currently serves as the President Endoscopic and Laparoscopic Surgeons of Asia (ELSA).His advocacy in teaching the art of Minimally Invasive Surgery has brought him around his country, Asia and Europe teaching and preceptoring young surgeons who are interested in this field.

Dr. Mark Callery is Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School and Chief, Division of General Surgery at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, MA.  He specializes in Pancreatic Surgery, as well as Hepatobiliary and Advanced Laparoscopic Surgery.  He has served several leadership roles in academic surgery including the Board of Governors of SAGES, the President-Elect of the SSAT, Past-President of the AHPBA and current President of the Boston Surgical Society.

Professor of Surgery, Tenured
Chief Division Acute Care Surgery, Program in TraumaEducation:
Medical School: University of Texas Medical School at Houston (1992)
Internship Surgery: University of Kentucky Albert B. Chandler Medical Center (1992- 1993)
Residency: Huron Hospital – Cleveland Clinic Foundation Affiliated Health Systems (General Surgery, 1993 –1998)
Fellowship: Vanderbilt University Medical Center (Fellowship in Trauma / Surgical Critical Care 1998 –1999)Appointments
2016 – Present       Vice Chair For Quality & Safety, Physician Leader, Quality & Safety of The University of Maryland Medical Center / R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center2011 – Present       Chief of Acute Care Surgery, Program in Trauma2012 – Present       Program Director Acute Care Surgery Fellowship Program

Board Certified: General Surgery, Surgical Critical Care, and Adult Nutrition Support

Awards:
2012, 2014, 2017- Society of Critical Care Medicine, Presidential; 2012, 2013, 2014 – Citation Senior Faculty Teaching Award, Department of Surgery, University of Maryland School of Medicine; 2017 – Top Docs by Baltimore Magazine

National Membership:
ACS, SAGES, SESC, SIS, SCCM, EAST, AAST, WSA, SWSC, Southern Surgical Association, American Surgical Association

Dr. Fingerhut, born in 1939 in New Brunswick New Jersey, USA, received his BA in organic chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania in 1961 and his medical degree from the University of Paris in 1971. He worked in several Parisian hospitals (under the tutelage of renown surgeons such as A Toupet and M Mercadier) before becoming assistant, then chief of service in the Centre Hospitalier Intercommunal of Poissy, France in 1987, position he held until 2006. He was named Associate Professor of Surgery. Department of Surgery Louisiana State University Medical Center. New Orleans, Louisiana, USA in 1993, Associate Professor of the Collège des Médecins des Hôpitaux de Paris in 2000, and holds three Professor DSc (hon) degrees (Medical University of Graz, Austria, University of China, Tai Chung Taiwan and University of Bucharest, Romania).He is author or co-author of > 750 articles or book chapters in peer-reviewed journals and major textbooks and has participated as speaker, chairman, or organizer in > 950 National and International meetings. As assistant secretary of the French Association for Clinical Research, he was co-author or contributed to the conception and/or publication of some 140 controlled, prospective or retrospective trials or registries run in France in the last 30 years.He is or has been on the Editorial board of 22 French and International Journals. He teaches laparoscopic surgery In connection with the EAES (European Association for Endoscopic Surgery)(past president (2011-2013), emergency surgery in connection with the European Society of Trauma and Emergency Surgery (ESTES) (past president 2011-2012), medical writing (in French and in English) for over 30 years and Definitive Surgery Trauma Care (DSTC) courses (founding member) of the International Association for Trauma and Surgical Intensive Care (IATSIC) (past president 1995-1997). He was President of the 14th World Endoscopy Surgery meeting held in Paris June 25-28, 2014. He is honorary member of the American College of Surgeons, International Society of Surgery and American Surgical Association. His current research involves the potential role of indocyanine green fluorescent techniques in the prevention of bile-duct injury during laparoscopic cholecystectomy and intraoperative detection of vascular insufficiency for gastro-intestinal operations with anastomoses.Last in 1995, as the team doctor, but also as a climber, he accompanied a French expedition to the Himalayas (Baruntse 7280 m).

Dr. Tyler Hughes is a board certified general surgeon practicing in McPherson, KS and a Clinical Professor of Surgery for Kansas University School of Medicine.  Born and raised in Dallas, TX, he did his medical training at Southwestern Medical School and residency under Dr. Ernest Poulos at St. Paul Medical Center, Dallas.  After residency, Dr. Hughes practiced general and vascular surgery in Dallas for 12 years.  During that time he served as Assistant Director of Surgical Training and Director of Surgical Intensive Care at St. Paul Medical Center.  In 1995, Dr. Hughes and his family moved to McPherson, KS and has enjoyed rural surgical practice ever since.  He is dedicated to teaching and was a clinical instructor in surgery for KU School of Medicine until he joined the faculty at Kansas University School of Medicine, Salina as professor of surgery.  Dr. Hughes is a member of the American Surgical Association, the Southern Surgical Association, the Western Surgical Association, the Kansas Medical Society and the Texas Surgical Society. He is currently co-editor of ACS Surgery News, the official newspaper of the American College of Surgeons.  He serves on the editorial board of “Selected Reading in General Surgery”.  He was president of the Kansas Chapter of the American College of Surgeons (ACS) in 2007.  In 2010 he was elected Governor at Large of the ACS for Kansas.  He was elected to a directorship of the American Board of Surgery in 2012 and was the founding chair of the ACS Advisory Council for Rural Surgery in June 2012 serving until 2017.  Also in 2012, Dr. Hughes was honored by the National Rural Health Association as the Rural Practitioner of the Year.  In 2014 Dr. Hughes was made Editor in Chief of ACS Communities, a social media network of the American College of Surgeons.  An avid writer and reader Dr. Hughes is extremely proud of his wife, Mary, who is an actress and his two grown children Dorothy Hughes, an expert in health policy and Tyler Hughes, Jr, an electrical engineer for Burns and McDonnell in Portland, Oregon.

Dr. Oscar Imventarza was born and grew up in Buenos Aires Argentina. He graduated from the University of Buenos Aires (UBA) in 1982. He received his surgical training between 1983-1986 at the Hospital Argerich and the Hospital Finochietto.In 1987 he began his training in Hepatobiliary Surgery and Liver Transplantation at the Transplant Division of the University of Pittsburgh under the supervision of Professor Thomas Starzl. He became Research fellow (1987), Clinical Fellow (1988), Instructor of Surgery (1989) and Assistant Professor of the same University in 1990.Oscar Imventarza returned to Argentina at the end of 1992 and opened as Chairman the first two Public Liver Transplant Programs of Argentina in the Hospital Juan P Garrahan (children’s) and Hospital Dr C Argerich (adult’s). Both became the most important public HPB centers of Argentina. Also he developed the first Liver and Pancreas Transplant Program of the Litoral Region located in Formosa City.Professor Imventarza has been an active member of different surgical societies. He was a founding member and President of the Argentine Society of Transplantation, Council Member of the Argentine Chapter of the IHPBA (CA-IHPBA) since 2007 and President  of the same Chapter for 2013-2015 period. He is an Active Member of the Argentine Academy of Surgery. His practice is focused in liver surgery and transplantation for adult and pediatric patients.

• Chairman, Liver & Transplant Division- Hospital Dr Juan P Garrahan, Buenos Aires
• Chairman, Liver & Transplant Division – Hospital Dr C Argerich, Buenos Aires
• General Coordinator, Liver & Transplant Unit – Sanatorio Trinidad Mitre, Buenos Aires
• Chairman, Liver & Pancreas Transplant Division – Hospital de Alta Complejidad, Formosa – Argentina
• President, International Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Association
• President Elect, STALYC latin American Society of Transplantation

Dr. Major Kenneth Lee, IV is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Gastrointestinal Surgery at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.  He completed residency at the University of Pennsylvania and further trained in Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery at both Providence Portland Medical Center and Washington University in Saint Louis.  His clinical interests include benign and malignant disease of the liver, pancreas, bile ducts, and upper gastrointestinal tract.

Surgeon-in-Chief, Chief of Surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital
W. Gerald Austen Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical SchoolDr. Keith D. Lillemoe received his undergraduate education at the University of South Dakota and his MD from The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in l978.  He served his entire surgical training at The Johns Hopkins Hospital from l978 to l985.  He joined the faculty at Hopkins in l985 and rose to the rank of Professor of Surgery in l996.  He served as Associate Program Director for the Hopkins Surgical Residency from l993 to 2003 and Vice-Chairman and Deputy Director of the department from l997 to 2003.  During his time at Johns Hopkins, he was recognized with the Department of Surgery Faculty Teaching Award on five occasions.  In September 2003 he was appointed the Jay L. Grosfeld Professor and Chairman of the Department of Surgery at the Indiana University School of Medicine.  He also served as the Program Director of their general surgery residency.  In May 2011, Dr. Lillemoe was appointed to the position of Surgeon-in-Chief and Chief of the Department of Surgery at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and the W. Gerald Austen Professor of Surgery at the Harvard Medical School.Dr. Lillemoe is a member of most surgical societies and has held office in many.  He has served as Secretary, President and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Society for Surgery of the Alimentary Tract.  He has previously served as President of the Society of Clinical Surgery, Secretary and President of the Society of University Surgeons, and President of the Halsted Society.  He has served as the Recorder and is a past-President of the American Surgical Association.  Dr. Lillemoe is a Senior Director of the American Board of Surgery.  In 2015, Dr. Lillemoe was inducted into the Johns Hopkins Society of Scholars. In 2017, he was recognized with the Honorary Member Award of the Award of the Association of Women’s Surgeons and in May 2018, he received the Joseph B. Martin Dean’s Leadership Award for the Advancement of Women Faculty from Harvard Medical School.Dr. Lillemoe’s research interests have ranged from basic science investigations into the pathophysiology of gallstones and other benign biliary tract disease to the clinical management of pancreatic carcinoma and bile duct injuries.  He has been funded in the past by the National Institute of Health and with numerous grants from industry.  His bibliography lists over 430 journal articles and 135 book chapters.  He has served as a visiting professor over 115 times and has spoken nationally and internationally on over 470 occasions. He is currently the Editor of one of the leading surgical texts Surgery: Scientific Principles and Practice and is Editor-in-Chief of Annals of Surgery.Dr. Lillemoe’s clinical interests are in gastrointestinal and pancreaticobiliary tract surgery.  He has contributed to major advances in the management of pancreatic cancer, bile duct injuries and strictures, and numerous other abdominal conditions.  In recent years his research interests have included surgical education, patient safety, quality and health care disparities.

Affiliations

• Professor of Surgery, YLL School of Medicine, National University of Singapore
• Senior Consultant Surgeon, National University Health System (NUHS), Singapore
• Director Minimally Invasive Surgical Centre & KTP Advanced Surgical Training Ctr
• Core Faculty Residency Programme in General Surgery (ACGME)
• Visiting Senior Consultant Surgeon, Department of Paediatric Surgery, NUHS

Education

• MD (University of Rome “La Sapienza),               1983
• D. (University of Rome “La Sapienza), 1990
• Specialist in General Surgery (University of Rome “La Sapienza)               1992
• Fellowship in MIS at National University of Singapore               1999-2000
• Fellow Academy of Medicine of Singapore (FAMS Surgery) 2006
• Fellow American College of Surgeons (FACS)               2017

Research

• Surgical Technology and Surgical Devices, Bariatric and Metabolic Surgery, Surgical Education, Abdominal Wall and Hernia.

POSITION IN PROFESSIONAL SOCIETY

• ELSA (Endoscopic and Laparascopic Surgeons of Asia): President 2011-2013 and Secretary General since 2013
• APHS (Asia-Pacific Hernia Society): Founding Member, Past-Secretary General, Past President and current Advisory President
• APMBSS (Asia Pacific Bariatric Surgery Society): Founding Member, President (2013-2016) and current Advisory Board Member
• AETF (Asia Endoscopic Task Force): Founding Member , President since 2017
• IFSES (International Federation Surgical Endoscopic Society): Secretary General/Treasurer since 2014

Honorary Member

Japanese Society for Endoscopic Surgery (JSES), Philippines College of Surgeons (PCS), PBEI Indonesian Society of Endolaparoscopic Surgeon (ISES), Philippines Association of Laparoscopic & Endoscopic Surgeons (PALES), Indonesian Hernia Society HIS – PERHERI), Indian Association of Gastrointestinal Endoscopic Surgeons (IAGES), Royal College of Surgeons of Thailand (RCST)

Editorial Activities

Associate Editor – Asia Journal Endoscopic Surgery (ASES)

Section Editor: Hernia and Abdominal Wall Surgery

Editorial Board Member: Surgical Endoscopy

Editorial Board Asian Journal of Surgery

Clinical Fellowship Programme: 55 full-time international clinical and research fellows.

Knighthood by the President of the Italian Republic “Ordine della Stella della Solidarieta’ Italiana” since September 2009

Dr. Miguel Ángel Mercado was born in Puebla, Mexico, on August 6, 1955. He did his residence in General Surgery and fellowship in hepatopancreatobiliary at the National Institute of Nutrition Salvador Zubirán (INNSZ) and the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM); from 1987 to 1989 continued his training in hepatic surgery in Heinz Kalk Hospital and the School of Medicine (Medizinische Hochschule) in Hannover, Germany. On his return to Mexico, he became part of the staff at the INNSZ, as surgeon, researcher, Vicecharman of Critical Care Medicine; and from 2007 to date is the Chairman of Surgery.He has published 188 articles, with special interest in hepatic surgery, 169 chapters in books. He has written 6 books on this subject and has been cited more than 1,530 times in other articles. He is member of the National Academy of Medicine, Mexican Academy of Surgery, and Level III National Investigator. He has been appointed honorary member of the American Surgical Association and the European Surgical Association. He is member of numerous societies and organizations, and has been president of the Mexican Gastroenterology Association, Mexican Experimental Surgery Association, and Medical Association of INNSZ. He is professor of the Surgical Specialization Program and Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary fellowship, both acknowledged by UNAM. He has participated in many congresses, and has imparted various conferences in universities and hospitals in countries such as United States, Canada, Guatemala, Argentina, Spain, Italy, Germany, Panama, Poland, and Dominican Republic; as well as more than 877 interventions in national congresses and meetings.

Dr. Patrick L Molt is Chief of Surgery and President of the Board of Directors at Fairfield Memorial Hospital, a Critical Access Hospital in rural southeastern Illinois.  He is an Adjunct Professor of Surgery of the Rush Medical College.

Dr. Kenric Murayama is Chair and Program Director of the Department of Surgery at the John A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM) of the University of Hawaii at Manoa.  Dr. Murayama graduated from JABSOM in 1985 and completed his surgery training at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine during which time he did a two year research fellowship in pancreatic physiology.  Dr. Murayama has a longstanding commitment to surgical education and leadership development in surgery.  He has been the recipient of numerous teaching awards from medical students and Residents. He has been an active participant in surgical societies nationally and is the first President of the Society of Asian Academic Surgeons.  He is currently on the Board of Governors for the Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons and is on the American College of Surgeons Advisory Council for General Surgery and Resident Education Committee. Dr. Murayama recently began a six-year term on the GI Surgery Advisory Council of the American Board of Surgery.  Dr. Murayama is a Past-President of the Southwestern Surgical Congress and holds leadership positions in several other organizations and was recently inducted into the American Surgical Association.  His clinical interests are in minimally invasive surgery for treatment of foregut disorders and abdominal wall hernias.  For his clinical excellence, he has been named a “Top Doc” on several occasions.  He has edited two surgery textbooks and published more than 80 articles, book chapters, and reviews and continues to be interested in surgical outcomes and quality improvement.  Dr. Murayama has developed an interest in healthcare finance and the future of our healthcare delivery systems.

Dr. Attila Nakeeb completed his medical school at the State University of New York at Buffalo and his General Surgery training and Advanced GI Surgery fellowship at The Johns Hopkins Hospital.  He is currently a Professor of Surgery at the Indiana University School of Medicine and the section chief of Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Surgery at Indiana University.  His clinical and research interests are in benign and malignant HPB disease and advanced minimally invasive surgical techniques.

Dr. Alessandro M. Paganini is Associate Professor of General Surgery and Director of the Unit “Chirurgia del paziente obeso” at Policlinico Umberto I, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy. He was Member of the Panel organized by the European Association for Endoscopic Surgery (EAES) on: “Prevention and treatment of bile duct injuries during laparoscopic cholecystectomy: the clinical practice guidelines of the EAES” published in Surgical Endoscopy in 2012. His main fields of scientific interest are in Minimal-Access Hepato-Biliary, Colo-Rectal, Adrenal, Inguinal hernia, and Bariatric surgery, having published several papers in peer-reviewed journals. He cured the Italian edition of the “Atlas of Minimally Invasive Surgery” by CT Frantzides and MA Carlson, published by Elsevier S.r.l., Milan, in 2011. He is Past President of the Italy Chapter of the American College of Surgeons and was the recipient of the prize Ettore Ruggeri of the Italian Society of Surgery in 2017 for his scientific achievements. He served as a member of the Scientific and Educational Committee of the EAES from 1998 to 2011 and of the Program Committee of the Society of American Gastrointestinal Endoscopic Surgeons (SAGES) from 1993 to 2003.

Dr. Andrea Pietrabissa received his medical degree at Pisa, Italy, in 1984. Resident in General Surgery at the University of Pisa and Research Fellow at the University of Chicago in 1986-9. He trained in MIS at Ninewells Hospital, Dundee, Scotland, under Prof. Sir Alfred Cuschieri, in 1992-3. Associate Professor of Surgery at the University of Pisa in 2000, he became Full Professor of Surgery at the University of Pavia in 2010, where he currently serves as Director of General Surgery and Head of the Department of Oncology. President Elect of the European Association for Endoscopic Surgeons (EAES). His main research interest is in the field of technology for surgery. Author of 130 peer-review articles with an H-Index of 30. Fellow of the American College of Surgeons and of the European Surgery Association. Honorary member of the Malta Surgical Society and of the Korean Society of Endoscopic and Laparoscopic Surgeons (KSELS).

Dr. C. Wright Pinson graduated with distinction in Physics, 1974; MBA, University of Colorado, 1976;  Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, 1980. He trained in general (OHSU), hepatobiliary (Lahey Clinic) and transplant surgery (Harvard/Deaconess Hospital). He joined the faculty at Oregon Health Sciences University in Surgery and in Physiology in 1988. Dr. Pinson initiated the first liver transplantation program in the Pacific Northwest and the first liver transplantation program in the Veterans Administration system. He was recruited in 1990 to Vanderbilt University as Professor of Surgery. In 1993-2004 he was the Interim Chair, Vice-Chair and Chairman of the Department of Surgery. He was Director of the Transplant Center (1993-2011) overseeing 6500 transplantations. He has been an active clinical and laboratory investigator in transplantation surgery leading to 300 publications, and the Grant Liddle research-mentoring award. Since 2009, Dr. Pinson has been and Chief Executive Officer of the Vanderbilt Health System. He received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the TJ Martell Foundation in 2013. In 2015 and 2016, he received Distinguished Service Awards respectively from the American and the International Hepatopancreatobiliary Associations. He received the Regional Healthcare Executive of the Year from The American College of Healthcare Executives in 2016.

Dr. Henry A. Pitt completed his surgical training at Johns Hopkins in 1979. He spent the next six years at UCLA working with William P. Longmire, Jr.  In 1985 he returned to Johns Hopkins as Vice Chairman of Surgery. During this time, Dr. Pitt was the President of the Society of Clinical Surgery. In 1997 he moved to the Medical College of Wisconsin as the Chairman of Surgery. While in Milwaukee, he was president of the Americas Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary-Association (AHPBA). In 2004 he moved to Indiana University (IU) where he initiated the HPB Surgery Fellowship, became the IU Hospital Chief Quality Officer and was President of the International-Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary-Association (IHPBA). In 2013 Dr. Pitt became the Chief Quality Officer for the Temple University Health System.  In 2014 he developed an HPB Collaborative of more than 90 hospitals in five countries for the American College of Surgeons-National Surgical Quality Improvement Program. He has received the HPB Medallion from the IHPBA and the Distinguished Service Award from the AHPBA. Dr. Pitt is a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in Edinburgh and an Honorary Professor of three medical schools in China. He has published more than 450 peer-reviewed articles as well as 125 book chapters, and he has edited 18 books.

Dr. Schwaitzberg is Chairman of the Department of Surgery at the University at Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences and Professor of Surgery and Bioinformatics.  Dr. Schwaitzberg also serves as the Medical Director, Surgical Program Development, at Great Lakes Health.A graduate of Johns Hopkins University, Dr. Schwaitzberg received his MD from Baylor College of Medicine and a MA (hon) from Harvard in 2014.  He completed his surgical residency (1981-86) at the Baylor Affiliated Hospitals, a fellowships in infectious disease (1980-81) at the Methodist Hospital and  in pediatric trauma (1986-87) at the Pediatric Trauma Institute, Floating Hospital for Children.He previously served as the Chief of Surgery at the Cambridge Health Alliance where he was Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School.  He served (1990-91) with the 365^th Evacuation Hospital, US Military Medical Complex in Seeb, Oman. He has held numerous leadership roles at the New England Medical Center including Chairman of the Institutional Review Board , Medical Director of the Center for Minimally Invasive Surgery, Director of the Surgical Intensive Care Unit, and Director of Surgical Research.Dr. Schwaitzberg is an internationally recognized physician-investigator. Dr. Schwaitzberg has focused his research in five areas: (1) device development; (2) prevention of intra-abdominal adhesions; (3) skill acquisition in minimally invasive surgery; (4) clinical evaluation of antibiotics; and (5) clinical outcomes.  His seminal research on the effects of microwaves in blood warming led to practical device application and federal approval. He translated his basic laboratory work with an anti-adhesion device to the pivotal clinical trial supporting its use in patients. He has made important contributions in both the preclinical and clinical areas in the development of surgical robots. His numerous research projects have been funded by the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and industry. He is currently the Principle Investigator on two grants looking at outcomes in biliary tract surgery and a national prospective clinical trial of “natural orifice” versus conventional laparoscopic cholecystectomy. Dr. Schwaitzberg has authored/co-authored over 200 peer-reviewed scientific manuscripts, review articles, book chapters, editorials, and clinical reviews. He holds three US patents.Dr. Schwaitzberg has won numerous awards including the American College of Surgeons 2010 Health Policy Scholar award, Computerworld/National Smithsonian Honors 21^st Century Laureate Achievement award (2003), and many awards for teaching excellence. He is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons and currently serves on the Board of Governors. He is Past President of the Society of American Gastrointestinal Endoscopic Surgeons and a past  Chairman of the Fundamentals of Laparoscopic Surgery Committee.

Dr. Nathaniel J. Soper was raised in Iowa City, Iowa, as the son of a pediatric surgeon. After graduating from the University of Iowa School of Medicine, he completed a residency in General Surgery, including a year of laboratory investigation under the mentorship of Layton F. Rikkers, at the University of Utah Hospitals in Salt Lake City, Utah. Dr. Soper then spent two years as an NIH-funded fellow at the Digestive Disease Center at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, mentored by Keith Kelly and Michael Sarr. He joined the faculty of the Department of Surgery at Washington University School of Medicine in 1988, and rose to the rank of Professor of Surgery. Dr. Soper was a staff surgeon at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, Missouri, and the Director of Minimally Invasive Surgery (MIS) at Washington University. He was one of the first academic surgeons performing laparoscopic surgery, which has defined his subsequent career. Dr. Soper was Director of the Washington University Institute for Minimally Invasive Surgery, an industry-funded multi-disciplinary group of surgical researchers working towards improving minimally invasive surgical techniques and technologies.In December, 2003, Dr. Soper assumed the position as Professor of Surgery, Vice-Chair for Clinical Affairs and Director of MIS at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.  He was named Interim Chair and Residency Program Director for General Surgery in 2006. On July 1, 2007 he was appointed the Loyal and Edith Davis Professor and Chairman of the Department of Surgery at Northwestern University and Surgeon-in-Chief at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. In 2011 he relinquished the Program Directorship, but continues to be active academically and clinically, with a robust practice in advanced minimally invasive surgery.Dr. Soper’s research interests have revolved around the applications of MIS for gastrointestinal disease, gallstones and benign esophageal disorders, as well as ultrasound and motility of the gastrointestinal tract. More recently he has been involved in the early clinical experience with Natural Orifice Translumenal Endoscopic Surgery, including per-oral esophageal myotomy (POEM) for achalasia. He has published more than 200 manuscripts, edited 17 textbooks and authored more than 100 book chapters. Dr. Soper is on the editorial boards of Annals of Surgery, Surgical Endoscopy, Journal of the American College of Surgeons, Journal of Gastrointestinal Surgery and Surgical Innovation. Dr. Soper has been named in “The Best Doctors in America” from 1991 through the present and has lectured extensively throughout the United States, Central and South America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. He is a member of numerous professional societies, including Alpha Omega Alpha, American College of Surgeons (including its Board of Governors), American Surgical Association and the Society of University Surgeons. Dr. Soper is Past-President of the Society for Surgery of the Alimentary Tract, the Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons, the International Society of Digestive Surgery, the Central Surgical Association and the St. Louis Surgical Society.

Dr. Gary C. Vitale is Professor of Surgery at the University of Louisville and Norton Hospital.  After obtaining his B.A. at Harvard University in 1975, Dr. Vitale completed his medical studies at Yale University in 1979.  He did his internship and residency at the University of Louisville including a 2-year fellowship in GI/biliary-pancreas surgery in Scotland at the University of Dundee with Dr. Alfred Cuschieri and a 1-year fellowship in Interventional ERCP in Paris, France with Dr. Claude Liguory.  He started on the University of Louisville faculty in 1986.  He maintains a busy practice in surgical endoscopy and pancreatic-biliary/complex GI surgery, and is also the Director of the fellowship in Pancreatico-biliary Surgery, Surgical Endoscopy and ERCP, which he established in 1992. To date, he has trained 38 surgeons from all over the world. In 2014, he received the Jeffrey Ponsky Master Educator in Endoscopy Award from the SAGES Education and Research Foundation.  In 2014, Dr. Vitale was elected a Fellow of the American Surgical Association. Dr. Vitale is a founding member and past chairman of the Flexible Endoscopy Committee of SAGES and remains a current member. He has also been chairman of the Credential Committee, a member of the Legislative Committee, the Fundamentals of Endoscopic Surgery Committee (FES), and was on the Board of Governors for many years.  Over the years, he has been an active member at the SAGES annual meetings, and has given numerous lectures, moderator, and participated in panel discussions. He is also a member of many other surgical associations.

Dr. Charles Vollmer is the Director of Pancreatic Surgery and Professor of Surgery at the University of Pennsylvania. He specializes in Pancreaticobiliary and other complex gastrointestinal surgery with a research focus in clinical outcomes assessment in high-acuity surgery. He has authored over 145 manuscripts, 40 book chapters, and 2 books focusing on pancreaticobiliary diseases. He is active in multiple national and international surgical societies where he has served in various leadership positions including Membership Chairman, Program Chairman, Treasurer, and now President of the AHPBA. He also sat on the Executive Committee of the IHPBA as Scientific Program Chair for the 2016 World Congress in Sao Paulo, Brazil. He is currently a reviewer for numerous surgical specialty journals and is on the Editorial Boards of Annals of Surgery, British Journal of Surgery, Surgery, HPB, the Journal of Gastrointestinal Surgery, and the Journal of Surgical Oncology. He is a member of the American Surgical Society, Society of Clinical Surgeons, and the Surgical Biology Club II. In 2008, he was honored to be the Josef Fischer Traveling Fellow in Academic Surgery for the Society of Surgery of the Alimentary Tract (SSAT) – an opportunity which allowed him to tour many of the top pancreatic surgical programs in Europe. Dr. Vollmer’s collegiate education was at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He then received his MD degree in 1994 from Jefferson Medical College in his hometown of Philadelphia. From there he received general surgical training at the Barnes-Jewish Hospital program at the Washington University of St. Louis where he was elected into Alpha Omega Alpha. He studied gene therapy as a surgical oncology research fellow at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in the middle of his clinical training. After Chief Residency at Washington University, he matriculated to the internationally acclaimed Hepatobiliary and Solid Organ Transplantation Surgery Fellowship at the University of Toronto in 2001. His current practice at Penn encompasses both malignant and benign conditions of the pancreas and biliary system with a strong emphasis in care of pancreatitis. He also serves as Co-Director of the Penn Pancreatic Cyst Program.

Dr. Go Wakabayashi, earned his degrees from Keio University School of Medicine, Tokyo Japan. He trained at Department of Surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. After working as an Assistant Professor at Department of Surgery, Keio University School of Medicine, he got appointed as Professor and Chairman of Department of Surgery at Iwate Medical University School of Medicine in 2005. From April 2015, he was recruited as Director of Center for Advanced Treatment of HPB Disease, Chief of Surgical Services, and Deputy Director at Ageo Central General Hospital, which is a flagship hospital among 6,000 beds hospital complex near Tokyo. His expertise includes Hepato-Pancreatic Biliary Surgery, liver transplantation, robotic surgery, and laparoscopic surgery. He has operated more than 150 cases of living liver transplantation and over 3000 cases of HPB surgery and laparoscopic surgery. His publications are over 300 peer review articles and book chapters related to HPB surgery, liver transplantation, and laparoscopic surgery. He was awarded Gold Medal of Video Olympics at The World Congress of Endoscopic Surgery 1996. He also practices conventional HPB surgery and aggressive surgery as well.  He holds numerous important positions in Japanese and international surgical societies.

Partner – Surgical Associates of Neenah, SC.
Adjunct Clinical Professor Marquette University – Physician Assistant Program
Adjunct Clinical Professor University of Wisconsin
Medical Director ThedaCare Cancer Program
Co-Medical Director ThedaCare Bariatric ProgramSAGES:

•              Co-Chairman Community Surgeon Group/Committee
•              CPT Representative
•               Committee Member
•               Safe Chole Task Force Member

Dr. Randall Zuckerman is a board certified general surgeon with specialty training in hepato-biliary surgery.  He was recruited Kalispell in 2015 to add to our expertise in hepatobiliary and pancreatic malignancies and to start Montana’s first peritoneal surface malignancy program (HIPEC). Randy has a background in rural surgery programs as well as graduate medical education. He was most recently on faculty at the Frank H. Netter School of Medicine as an Assistant Professor of Surgery and Residency Program Director and the Director of the Center for Liver and Pancreas Disease at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Previously, he served as the Founder and Director of the Mithoefer Center for Rural Surgery at the Bassett Health Care System in Cooperstown, New York. Randy’s experience in resident education has aided our Rural Surgery Resident-in-Training Fellowship and he been intimately involved in creating the first surgical residency training program in Montana. He is on the WWAMI admissions committee for University of Washington Medical School where he is a clinical Associate Professor of Surgery.