The Department of Surgery at Harbor-UCLA is composed of 13 divisions, staffed with 50 full-time and 10 part-time faculty, all of whom are appointed and promoted through the high standards of the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. We are simultaneously a major safety net hospital and a tertiary referral center. Harbor-UCLA is also one of the busiest Level I Trauma Centers in the Western U.S. The Department supports residency programs in General Surgery, Integrated Vascular Surgery, Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, and General Dentistry, as well as fellowships in Vascular Surgery and Surgical Critical Care. Our mission is to provide top notch, state-of-the-art surgical care for our patients, and we take pride in the fact that our faculty, residents, and fellows are a multifaceted group of exceptional clinicians, outstanding teachers, and cutting-edge innovators.

Our Department strongly supporting diversity, equity, and inclusion. We created a Surgery Department Committee on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Anti-racism that meets monthly. The committee has been involved in many new initiatives including a new speaker series, community outreach, mentorship, and holistic applicant review. The Department Chair is an immigrant (originally from Argentina), and of our four Vice-Chairs, Dr. Beverley Petrie (Executive Vice-Chair), Dr. Brant Putnam (Vice Chair, Clinical Affairs), Dr. Christine Dauphine (Vice Chair, Education), and Dr. Junko Ozao-Choy (Vice Chair, Research), three are women. In fact, women constitute 41% of our general surgery residency teaching faculty.

Seven years ago, Harbor-UCLA Medical Center opened 16 new ultramodern operating rooms, along with a new 50+ bed emergency department that is fully equipped for high-level trauma management. With a full complement of surgical subspecialists, many of the latest advanced surgical technologies are offered at our facility, including cutting-edge endovascular techniques for complex thoracic aortic pathology (TEVAR), intraoperative radiation therapy (IORT) for breast cancer, hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) with cytoreductive surgery, resuscitative endovascular balloon occlusion of the aorta (REBOA) for trauma, and robotic cancer surgery, to name a few. We have an active robotic surgery program, including colorectal, thoracic, surgical oncology, urology, and hepatobiliary disciplines.

Our department places a premium on education and wellness. Harbor-UCLA is one of the primary teaching sites for the UCLA medical students. Our surgical faculty hold prominent and active teaching roles in the UCLA School of Medicine and are involved in the design and implementation of the medical school curriculum. Among various innovations, we have developed a Residents and Fellows as Teachers program, a Surgical Trainee Assessment of Readiness exam for our junior residents, and a hospital-wide Faculty and Residents as Educators program. Our faculty and residents have received numerous teaching accolades, including two National Golden Apple Teaching Awards from the American Medical Student Association, the ACGME Parker Palmer Courage to Teach Award, the UCLA School of Medicine Excellence in Education Award, and several UCLA Teaching with Humanism awards. Our wellness program includes annual retreats and regular programming with topics such as fitness, stress management, nutrition, and mindful awareness.

Research has always been on the forefront of our department. The research conducted by the faculty and trainees is supported by the on-campus Lundquist Institute a nonprofit organization, whose researchers have active funding by the NIH and other federal and private sources. Harbor-UCLA surgical faculty have a renowned record of scientific achievement and research productivity and have held leadership positions in many national and regional academic societies. Recently our faculty and residents were involved in the CODA trial, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, that demonstrated the noninferiority of antibiotics for the management of acute appendicitis. Our academic year culminates in an Annual Resident Research Day.

The Department of Surgery has an exciting future ahead as plans are underway to further expand the Harbor-UCLA campus, with a new hospital, outpatient clinic facilities, and a modern pavilion. We invite you to fully explore this website to learn more about our clinical and training programs. We are proud of our clinical, educational, and research legacies, as well as our commitment to caring for the underserved.

Christian de Virgilio, M.D., FACS
Chair, Department of Surgery, Harbor-UCLA Medical Center

Professor of Surgery

Co-Chair, College of Applied Anatomy

David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA