University of Pennsylvania
General Thoracic
Member Since: 1991
Biography:
Having practiced as an academic general thoracic surgeon for 35 years, Dr. Kaiser also served in leadership positions in academic medicine for over 20 years. Prior to joining consulting firm Alvarez and Marsal as a managing director in 2020, he served for almost nine years as President and Chief Executive Officer of the Temple University Health System, a $2.5B system, Senior Executive Vice-President for Health Affairs, and the inaugural Lewis Katz Dean of the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University.
Before joining Temple University, Dr. Kaiser served as President of the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, the largest of the six health-related institutions of the University of Texas. and held the Alkek-Williams Distinguished Chair.
He graduated AOA from the Tulane University School of Medicine in 1977 and completed his residency in general surgery as well as a fellowship in surgical oncology at the University of California, Los Angeles followed by residency in cardiovascular and thoracic surgery at the University of Toronto. He was appointed as attending thoracic surgeon at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and Assistant Professor at Cornell and subsequently as Associate Professor (with tenure) at the Washington University School of Medicine (St. Louis). At the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Kaiser held a variety of positions, including chief of general thoracic surgery, founder and director of the university’s lung transplantation program, the first in the Northeast, and co-director of the Thoracic Oncology Laboratory. In 2001 he was named the John Rhea Barton Professor and Chair of the Department of Surgery as well as Surgeon in Chief for the University of Pennsylvania Health System.
He is the author or co-author of 20 books and more than 350 original papers, and he serves on multiple editorial boards including the Annals of Surgery and the European Journal of Cardiothoracic Surgery. Dr. Kaiser has served as a director of both the American Board of Surgery and the American Board of Thoracic Surgery and in 2005 was elected to the National Academy of Medicine (formerly the Institute of Medicine).
At Alvarez and Marsal Dr. Kaiser works at the intersection between academic medical centers and health systems with a special interest in strategy, physician practice management and performance improvement.
What Does the AATS Mean to You:
AATS is our senior thoracic surgical organization where members and guests present their best work. Admission to the AATS is for those surgeons who have made significant accomplishments and who are recognized by others as worthy of being a member of this outstanding organization. One of the great honors of one's career in thoracic surgery is becoming a member of this organization. For an up-and-coming surgeon having a paper accepted for presentation at an AATS meeting is a significant milestone.
My First Experience with AATS:
My first experience with AATS was in 1981 when I had the honor of presenting a paper, one of my first at a national meeting. Don Paulson, a surgeon of great renown, was the president that year and his talk had a great influence on my career.
Why I became an AATS member:
As I recall I became a member around 1994 or 1995. It was a tremendous honor for me at that stage of my career.
The most impactful presentation I have seen at an AATS meeting:
Well, there have been many, many papers presented that have had great impact but for me hearing Griff Pearson present his work on tracheal resection at that 1981 meeting had a very significant impact on my career. It fueled my desire to train with Pearson, Cooper, Patterson et al in Toronto, where I was indeed fortunate to train, and has had the most lasting impact on my career.
The first presentation I gave is:
As noted above my first presentation was at the 1981 meeting in Washington, DC when I spoke on In vitro assessment of antineoplastic therapy: New indication for thoracotomy, which was subsequently published in JTCVS.
The first paper I had published is:
I had a number of papers before my first thoracic paper, which was the paper noted above in JTCVS.
I plan on becoming more involved in the organization through:
I've been involved in the organization in a number of ways over the years. I've been a donor, which I will continue to be and despite no longer being in the operating room I still value greatly coming to the annual meeting to continue to learn.
A significant case/patient interaction that impacted my career is:
I was the resident on the first successful lung transplant done by Dr. Joel Cooper in Toronto in 1983 and was also the resident on the second one done one year later. Truly an incredible experience that had a major impact on my career in many ways."
My career in CT Surgery was inspired by:
I was interested in oncology and did a fellowship in surgical oncology at UCLA with Don Morton and colleagues and became interested in lung cancer thanks to the influence of one of my mentors, Mack Holmes who was a principal in the Lung Cancer Study Group. And once I heard Griff Pearson talk about tracheal resection, I knew exactly what i wanted to do. I was always focused on general thoracic surgery at a time when most people wanted to do cardiac and the opportunity to train in Toronto was incredibly significant.
A significant case/patient interaction that impacted my career is:
I was the resident on the first successful lung transplant done by Dr. Joel Cooper in Toronto in 1983 and was also the resident on the second one done one year later. Truly an incredible experience that had a major impact on my career in many ways.
The biggest impact my mentor had on my career is:
Joel Cooper was in many ways responsible for helping me obtain my first post-residency position, which was at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. I then had the honor of joining him as we built the thoracic program, including the lung transplant program at Washington University in St. Louis.
The topic most important to advancing the field of CT Surgery is:
Continuing to attract outstanding men and women into our exciting field as well as advancing diversity. Continuing to promote research and encouraging trainees to pursue research while advancing the field with clinical innovations is also critically important.
The most pressing issues impacting CT surgery are:
The most pressing issue is the challenge of attracting outstanding trainees into our field. In addition, we will continue to have challenges in reimbursement, which has mandated that a majority of those in our field are employed by hospitals and health systems.
Advice for Trainees:
Develop an area of expertise for which you can be recognized as expert. This does not mean one should only do one thing, but it is important to be recognized as expert in an area or two of the specialty.