Chair’s Message

Our department has a long and storied history, dating back 150 years. Dr. Israel Talbot was the first Chair of Surgery and the first Dean of the Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine when it was founded in 1873. Since then, we have trained scores of surgeons and have made innumerable contributions in clinical care, education, and research.

Today, the Department of Surgery comprises 14 divisions and sections and provides the full spectrum of adult and pediatric surgical care at Boston Medical Center (BMC). The largest safety-net hospital in New England, BMC is the primary teaching affiliate for the Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine. At BMC, medical students and our general surgery residents and fellows have exposure to the variety and volume of cases typical at a major urban medical center and Level I trauma center. Longtime collaborations with the Veterans Administration (VA) Boston Healthcare System, Roger Williams Medical Center, Cape Cod Hospital, St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center, and other institutions provide training opportunities in environments that serve varied patient populations.

Many things make BMC and the Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine special. Among them is a focus on health equity, social determinants of health, and the associated impact on patient care and outcomes. Socially Responsible Surgery, a group that was formed here in 2014 to enable students and residents to combine their interest in surgery with their passion for serving the underserved, is now a national organization, with more than 15 chapters at institutions across the country and more forming.

BMC is the second largest recipient of NIH grant funding of all safety-net hospitals in the country, and in the Department of Surgery, faculty, residents, and medical students are very active in clinical, outcomes, translational, and basic research.

Although a lot has changed over the last century and a half at the Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, much has stayed the same. We remain committed to providing our patients with world-class care, to inspiring and training the next generation of surgeons, and contributing to advances in care through research.

Alik Farber, MD, MBA, FACS, DFSVS
James Utley Professor and Chair of Surgery, Boston University
Surgeon-in-Chief, Boston Medical Center