Starnes named chair of expanded Department of Surgery
Photo By Don Milici
“I am delighted to appoint one of our own to this very important new role at the Keck School of Medicine,” Dean Puliafito said. “Dr. Starnes is a stellar surgeon and academic leader who will play a pivotal role in building USC’s new academic medical center.”
Dr. Starnes now holds the H. Russell Smith Foundation Chair for Cardiovascular Thoracic Research. He previously served as chair of the Keck School’s Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, which is being merged into the Department of Surgery along with the Department of Colorectal Surgery. He is the founding executive director of the USC Cardiovascular Thoracic Institute and chief of cardiothoracic surgery and director of the Heart Institute at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles.
As the new chair of the Department of Surgery, Dr. Starnes’ priorities include:
• Building on the foundation established by retiring chair, Dr. Tom DeMeester, who has served in that role since 1990, to create a top-flight academic surgical program.
• Recruiting nationally recognized leaders in various surgical areas, including liver transplantation, breast surgery, thoracic surgery and colorectal surgery.
• Focusing on the department’s educational programs to be certain the residents and medical students are finishing the program with good exposure to advanced surgical techniques and satisfaction with their educational experience.
“We certainly have a very good foundation,” said Starnes. “The model is going to be excellence in clinical care, along with excellence in surgical teaching.”
An internationally renowned surgeon, Starnes is acclaimed for his pioneering work in cardiothoracic surgery, heart and lung transplantation, and repair of congenital heart defects. He is also recognized for his expertise in heart surgery for children and newborns.
In 1990, Starnes performed the world’s first lobar transplant using a lung segment from a living donor. Three years later, he performed the first live-donor, double-lobar lung transplant on a patient with cystic fibrosis. The operation involved taking lung tissue from each parent and transplanting it into their child.
“Dr. Starnes is a pioneer in the field of cardiothoracic surgery,” noted Puliafito in an announcement to Keck School faculty and staff. “He has conducted more living donor lung transplants in adults and children than any other surgeon in the United States.”
As the founding executive director of the USC Cardiovascular Thoracic Institute, Dr. Starnes has built an innovative, interdisciplinary powerhouse, comprised of clinicians and basic scientists who are exploring better and more innovative ways of treating heart disease. Under his leadership, USC surgeons have conducted more than 15,000 open heart surgeries to repair and replace valves or create coronary artery bypasses, and more than 10,000 surgeries for diseases of the lungs, esophagus and chest wall. He and his surgical team also performed Southern California’s first robotic heart operation in 2001 as part of a clinical trial evaluating the use of a remote surgical system.
For his outstanding work, Starnes has received numerous prestigious awards. In 2008, he was awarded the Presidential Medallion from the University of Southern California for his significant contributions to cardiothoracic medicine and transplantation, his distinguished career as a healer and educator, and his dedication to the advancement of human health and well-being. Starnes is also consistently listed among the “Best Doctors in America” and “America’s Top Doctors.”
In addition to his clinical work, Starnes is a distinguished researcher. He has an ongoing interest in many areas of research, including congenital heart disease, cadaveric and live-donor organ transplantation, coronary bypass grafting, and repair and replacement of heart valves. He is also involved in bench research, helping develop gene therapy techniques to address problems that occur after balloon angioplasty procedures. Starnes is currently investigating the use of gene therapy to prevent scarring following heart surgery. He is also involved in a clinical trial using robotic surgery technology for cardiothoracic surgery.
“My priority is really to create a top-flight academic surgical program,” said Starnes. “I think patients are going to come to USC because they view it as the best place to be for surgery on the west coast.”
Starnes succeeds Dr. Tom DeMeester, who served as chair of the Department of Surgery since 1990.
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The Chronicle of Higher Education mentioned USC’s $6 billion fundraising campaign. The story noted that USC had already raised $1 billion in a “quiet phase,” including the $200 million naming gift from USC Trustee and alumnus David Dornsife and wife Dana Dornsife to the USC Dornsife College.
The Guardian (U.K.) highlighted two major gifts to USC in a list of the 10 biggest philanthropic benefactors in America. The list included the $200 million naming gift from USC Trustee and alumnus David Dornsife and wife Dana Dornsife to the USC Dornsife College, and the $110 million gift from USC Trustee and USC Viterbi School alumnus John Mork and wife Julie to create the USC Mork Family Scholars Program.
The New York Times featured the USC U.S.-China Institute documentary “Assignment: China — The Week that Changed the World.” The documentary, part of a series, examines media coverage of the 1972 Nixon trip that reshaped U.S.-China relations after a quarter century of isolation and hostility. “People look back now and take it for granted that the outcome was preordained,” said the institute’s Mike Chinoy, who produced the documentary. Voice of America also featured the story.
Los Angeles Times featured the Oscar Senti-meter, a tool developed by the USC Annenberg School, Los Angeles Times and IBM that analyzes thousands of tweets about the Academy Awards nominees. The story noted that Mexican actor Demian Bechir received an enormous boost on Twitter the day of the nominations, with a total of 6,893 tweets mentioning him, a 47-fold increase from the day before. The story noted the tool uses language-recognition technology developed in collaboration with USC Viterbi School’s Signal Analysis and Interpretation Lab.
The Times of India (India) featured a three-day medical emergency training workshop organized in association with USC. At the workshop, held at GCS Medical College in India, 50 doctors and more than 100 paramedics learned how to improve emergency support systems. William Mallon of the Keck School of USC said that discussion topics included the use of portable ultrasonic devices to scan patients. “The ultrasound applications help physicians make accurate and timely decisions,” he noted. Daily News & Analysis (India) also featured the workshop.
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