Boston University School of Medicine/Boston Medical Center Names Gerard Doherty, MD Chair/Chief of Surgery

Gerard M. Doherty, MD, has been appointed chair of the Department of Surgery at Boston University School of Medicine and chief of Surgery at Boston Medical Center effective January 1.

Doherty comes to BUSM/BMC from the University of Michigan, where he is NW Thompson Professor of Surgery, vice chair of the Department of Surgery and section head of General Surgery. He takes the reins at BUSM/BMC from James Becker, MD, who is returning to a full-time practice of surgery, teaching and research after having served as chair and chief of Surgery for 17 years.

Doherty’s clinical focus is endocrine oncology and comprises surgical diseases of the thyroid, parathyroid, endocrine pancreas and adrenal glands, as well as the surgical management of multiple endocrine neoplasia (MEN) syndromes.

“Dr. Doherty will be a strong leader on the faculty of Boston University School of Medicine,” said Karen Antman, MD, provost of BU Medical Campus and dean of BUSM. “He is an accomplished surgical investigator with two decades of experience in academic administration and research. He has authored more than 150 peer-reviewed journal articles and is committed to undergraduate medical education and residency training.”

“We are excited to welcome Dr. Doherty to BMC,” said President and CEO Kate Walsh. “He is a wonderfully skilled surgeon with special expertise in the management of endocrine tumors and thyroid cancer, which will be of great benefit to our patients and a tremendous asset to the BMC Cancer Care Center. “As Chief and Chair, his leadership will be an enormous asset to our surgery program overall,” she added.

Doherty’s research interests include a series of projects aiming to regenerate parathyroid cells for replacement of lost tissue in people who are permanently hypoparathyroid.

In addition to serving for the past decade as chief of General Surgery at the University of Michigan Health System, he is president of the Michigan Chapter of the American College of Surgeons and has held multiple leadership positions in national and international professional groups, including the Board of Directors of the American Thyroid Association.

A graduate of Holy Cross and Yale School of Medicine, Doherty completed his residency at the UC-San Francisco, including Medical Staff Fellowship at the National Cancer Institute. He joined the faculty at Washington University School of Medicine in 1993 and became professor of Surgery there in 2001.