A Message from the Chairman

On behalf of the faculty and staff in the MUSC Department of Surgery, I would like to extend a warm welcome to you. Building on a long standing tradition of excellence in patient care and teaching, the Department has been a key part of a remarkable ongoing institutional transformation that is unprecedented in its history.

Our mission is: To provide patient care recognized for excellence integrated with innovative research which leads to the advancement of medical science and state of the art training for our surgeons and future physicians. Our clinical programs are well recognized for excellence and poised for continued growth with adult cardiac surgery, thoracic surgery, vascular surgery, and general and GI surgery moving to our new hospital facilities in 2008. We have a congenital heart surgery program that is among the world's best. Our cardiac transplant program has recently been ranked number one in the Southeast and number two in the United States. We have a nationally recognized expertise in the surgical management of chronic pancreatitis, and our abdominal organ transplant surgery program performed over 150 kidney, 10 kidney/pancreas and 50 liver transplants in 2006 with excellent clinical results. In addition to these highlights, we have recently been designated as a Center of Excellence in Bariatric Surgery. As a result of a decade of growth, we now have outstanding research efforts in both clinical and basic science in the areas of tumor immunology, cardiothoracic surgery, molecular biomarkers, transplant surgery, and health disparities. Extramural funding for these laboratories exceeded 4.6 million in 2006 and included sources such as the National Institutes of Health, the VA Hospital, the American Cancer Society, and the American Heart Association. Teaching has always been a priority and is reflected in the fact that our students continually perform above the national norms and MUSC Golden Apple Awards for excellence in teaching have gone to a disproportionate number of our faculty, residents, and staff for over a decade.

We are dedicated to excellence, and look toward the future with excitement. It is not enough to be providers of excellent patient care; we must aspire to be the ones who will shape the direction of patient care now and in the future. We have the opportunity to think and act at a new level of excellence and expertise with exciting new intra- and inter-institutional programs, nationally prominent faculty, and health initiatives which will have an increasingly regional and national impact. New programs such as autologous pancreatic islet cell transplantation, a laparoscopic teaching center of excellence, a minimally invasive pediatric surgery program, innovative cancer therapy trials and groundbreaking cardiac diagnostics are examples of changes that will continue to reshape our department and allow us to continue to build strong relationships within the State of South Carolina and provide academic leadership at a national level.

David J. Cole, M.D.
McKoy Rose Professor and Chair
MUSC Department of Surgery