Bruce L. Gewertz, MD
Surgeon-in-Chief, Chair of the Department of Surgery
Vice President, Interventional Services
Bruce L. Gewertz, M.D. is an internationally recognized vascular surgeon and a leader in academic medicine. Throughout his career, his research and clinical skills have contributed significantly to improvements in vascular surgery, and he has had a similar significant impact on medical education through his work chairing major national committees that have developed innovative approaches to physician training.
Dr. Gewertz is Surgeon-in-Chief, Chair of the Department of Surgery and Vice-President for Interventional Services at Cedars-Sinai Health System in Los Angeles, where he also holds the Harriet and Steven Nichols Endowed Chair in Surgery.
Since joining Cedars-Sinai in 2006, Dr. Gewertz has coordinated recruitments across the full spectrum of modern surgical care. Cedars-Sinai's Department of Surgery is one of the largest surgical programs in the nation, exceeding 27,000 procedures per year. Among the department's recent initiatives is a multi-disciplinary program in vascular interventions incorporating vascular surgery, cardiology, neuro-endovascular and peripheral interventions. Within the Department of Surgery, Dr. Gewertz has focused on expanding research efforts and administrative support for academic activities. With the support of the attending medical staff, the Cedars-Sinai general surgery residency has become highly competitive, attracting outstanding medical students from all over the United States.
Prior to joining Cedars-Sinai, Dr. Gewertz served as the Dallas B. Phemister Professor and Chair of the Department of Surgery at the University of Chicago from 1992 to 2006. His recruitment of outstanding clinicians and surgical scientists to Chicago allowed the department to increase its basic and clinical research funding more than three-fold. He joined the University of Chicago in 1981, holding a variety of leadership positions over years, including serving as the first Faculty Dean of Medical Education, when he led a revision of the university's medical school curriculum under a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Dr. Gewertz is the author of more than 200 original articles, book chapters and books, including The Atlas of Vascular Surgery (Churchill Livingstone, 1993; Elsevier, 2005) and Surgery of the Aorta and Its Branches (W.B. Saunders, 2000). His principal clinical and research interests include cerebrovascular disease (especially intraoperative neurophysiologic monitoring and outcome analysis), aortic aneurysmal disease, and mesenteric ischemic syndromes. His basic research into ischemia/reperfusion injury and endothelial cell physiology has been funded by the National Institute of Health and the American Heart Association. Recent work has focused on the cellular mechanisms leading to changes in microvascular permeability and studies of intracellular signaling by free radicals and cytokines.
Dr. Gewertz has received numerous awards for his basic investigations and teaching. These include the Jobst Award for Vascular Surgery Research, the Coller Award from the Michigan Chapter of the American College of Surgeons, and the Teaching Scholars Award from the American Heart Association. He was selected Outstanding Science Alumnus by Pennsylvania State University in 2003. Dr. Gewertz is Editor Emeritus of the Journal of Surgical Research (Editor from 1990-1998) and has served on the Editorial Board of Annals of Vascular Surgery (1985-2005) and the Journal of Vascular Surgery (1998-2004). A large number of invited and named lectureships throughout the years have addressed a broad range of topics in vascular disease and physiology as well as the challenges facing academic medicine. He is consistently included among Best Doctors in America (Castle-Connolly, 2001-2008), Who's Who in America (1994-2008) and Who's Who in the World (2000-2008).
Dr. Gewertz is a member of many national surgical organizations, including the American Surgical Association, Society for Clinical Surgery, and the Central Surgical and Western Surgical Associations. Along with officer and executive committee positions in these organizations, he has served as President of the Chicago Surgical Society, the Association for Surgical Education, the Midwestern Vascular Surgical Society and, most recently, the Western Surgical Association. He is also a director of the Vascular Surgery Board of the American Board of Surgery. Dr. Gewertz has participated nationally in the design and evaluation of resident and medical school activities through his leadership positions in the Association for Surgical Education and extensive involvement in the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), including the Advisory Panel on the Mission and Organization of Medical Schools (APMOMS) and the Forum on the Future of Academic Medicine. He chaired the recent AAMC Task Force on Integrating Teaching and Patient Care.
Dr. Gewertz was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and was educated at Pennsylvania State University and Jefferson Medical College in the combined BS-MD five-year program. Following his graduation from medical school in 1972, Dr. Gewertz trained in general and vascular surgery at the University of Michigan. From 1977 to 1981, he served on the faculty at University of Texas-Southwestern Medical School in Dallas, prior to joining the University of Chicago in 1981.
