Annual Reports

This year, MUSC celebrates its bicentennial. As we commemorate the tenacity, grit, and innovative spirit of the visionaries who founded the Medical University of South Carolina in 1824, we honor the 200-year legacy of contributions,milestones, and firsts that MUSC faculty, leaders, students, and staff have made to the health care journey here in South Carolina and the U.S.

The Department of Surgery is now one of 24 departments in the College of Medicine. Our growth and impact on patients and communities directly result from our people, who are the heart of our work and the culture we are cultivating. It is crucial to attract and retain surgeon-scientists and cutting-edge researchers who are best suited to uphold our tripartite mission, some of whom you will learn about in this report.

I hope you enjoy reading about the foundation our history provides and the strides we are making today, which enable us to explore new opportunities to enhance patient care through our innovation, impact, and influence. I am deeply grateful for your ongoing interest in the Department’s progress and the future of surgery.

With gratitude,

Prabhakar Baliga, M.D., FACS
R. Randolph Bradham, M.D., Endowed Chair of Surgery
Chair, MUSC Department of Surgery

If you would like a print copy of the report, please contact dos-comm@musc.edu

Our History and Growth

The foundational history of the MUSC Department of Surgery was laid in the eighteenth century a ta time when Charleston shared the scientific and medical aspirations of the American Enlightenment with Boston, New York, and Philadelphia. David Ramsay, M.D., a member of the Continental Congress who served as a military surgeon during the Revolutionary War, was among the founders of the Medical Society of South Carolina.When MUSC was founded in 1824, James Ramsay, M.D., the son of David Ramsay, M.D., became the first Professor and Chair of Surgery. Ramsay was followed in the Chair’s role by many notable surgeons, including Julian John Chisolm, M.D.,author of "A Manual of Military Surgery" and inventor of a chloroform inhaler used for battlefield anesthesia, and Robert Kinloch, M.D., President of the Medical Society of South Carolina and a founder of the American Surgical Association, the oldest surgical society in the United States.

Over the next two centuries, as the college continued to grow and evolve, the Department of Surgery was fortunate to be led by exceptional leaders and innovators. Sustained by our dedicated surgical visionaries, our clinical divisions are now home to numerous NIH-funded, internationally renowned investigators, master clinicians, and award winning researchers and educators who are leaders in their specialized fields of surgery.We have achieved remarkable medical breakthroughs, including the first successful kidney transplant in the state, the first heart transplant in South Carolina, the invention of an instrument to allow the first successful heart valve operation, the first robotic mitral valve surgery in SC, and much more.Today, the Department of Surgery is recognized nationally and internationally for its faculty, clinical care, basic research, and education quality.

“The Department of Surgery has experienced unprecedented clinical growth in our post-Covid era. Our cutting-edge clinical and research prowess provides a depth of expertise unparalleled in many academic medical centers."-

Prabhakar Baliga, M.D.
R. Randolph Bradham, M.D., Endowed Chair in Surgery
Chair, MUSC Department of Surgery

Robotic Surgery Expands Across More Surgical Disciplines

623% Increase in Robotic Surgery Over the Past 4 Years

With ten state-of-the-art da Vinci Xi robots, and one da Vinci SP robot, we now have one of the most comprehensive robotic programs in the country and the only hospital in the state offering robotic surgery in all applicable surgical specialties. Several clinical specialties have enhanced patient care with new robotic surgery certification and expertise in novel robotic procedures.In August of 2024, we added two new da Vinci 5 (DV5) systems,da Vinci's most advanced and integrated robotic surgical system.DV5 has 10,000x the computing power of the da Vinci Xi.MUSC Health is one of three medical centersin the world who have been allocated a dual console da Vinci 5 system as a limited release.

Message from the Vice Chair

What a great year of listening and learning! It has been fascinating to consider the novelty and depth of research interests among our growing faculty cohort, further amplified by their peer collaborations and resident mentor activities. As evidenced by the exciting discussion at the Research session of the Early Career Development Program in the spring of 2024,investigator interests expand well beyond animal models and national databases. Thus, aiming to create programming that would appeal to the breadth of investigators was clearly a fool’s errand.Preparing for our next academic year, initiatives will focus on like-minded researchers sharing opinions, ideas, and experiences,to the benefit of junior and senior faculty alike.

Building on the success of the Surgery Seminar Series coordinated by Hongjun Wang, Ph.D., the Surgical Outcomes Research and Innovation Nucleus (SORIN) is being re-launched by David Taber, PharmD, to engage health services researchers as well as clinical trial principal investigators. As Director of Research Administration, Morgan Overstreet, MS, will play a major role in this endeavor, particularly with expansion of the clinical trial opportunities. We were also excited to welcome Chris Steffen, MBA, as the new Grants Administrator and a key part of our pre-award team.

The Basic and Translational Researchers welcomed a new lab in Surgical Oncology led by William Hawkins, M.D., and Dirk Spitzer, Ph.D., thereby expanding the scientific acumen of the department. Several surgical faculty members were also recipients of the inaugural Schiller Institute Surgical Innovation Awards Competition to facilitate artificial intelligence applications in health services research.Resident research continues to be a priority and the Surgeon Scientist Pathway, which assisted three residents to connect with terrific mentorship teams for the 2025 academic year, willbe transitioning to leadership with Kate Engelhardt, M.D., MS,and Dirk Van der Windt, M.D., Ph.D. Additional individual achievements are highlighted below.

Jean Marie Ruddy, M.D.

The Department of Surgery ranked number 35 nationally for the most funds awarded to a surgery department by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in 2023, according to the Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research (BRIMR). According to the NIH’s reporting for the federal FY 2023, the MUSC Department of Surgery received $5.3M in NIH grants, the largest amount of NIH funding for the Department of Surgery in the past ten years recorded in the BRIMR database.

Out of 710 researchers that achieved national ranking:

• Hongjun Wang, Ph.D., ranked in the top 10%
• Shikhar Mehrotra, Ph.D., ranked in the top 21%
• Nancy Klauber-DeMore, M.D., ranked in the top 22%

81% Increase in Research Expenditures Over the Past 4 Years

Education Highlights 

Our residency and fellowship programs offer an unparalleled training experience focusing on clinical excellence and patient-centered care. 

35% Increase in Education Enrollment Over the Past 4 Years

2,567 Resident Applications Received

• 1,962 General Surgery
• 150 Vascular Surgery
• 330 Plastic Surgery
• 145 Cardiothoracic Surgery

4 ACGME-Accredited Surgical Residency Programs

86 Current Interns and Residents

5 Fellowship Programs

• 2 ACGME-Accredited Fellowship Programs
• 3 Non-ACGME Fellowship Programs

9 Fellows

We offer a robust career development and mentorship program, integrated into Surgical Grand Rounds, didactics, journal clubs, and research opportunities.

• Vascular Surgery I-6 with Research Track: First Match
• CT Surgery I-6 & General Surgery added a designated Research Track for FY25
• Surgical Critical Care Fellowship Complement Increase
• New Pediatric Surgery Research Fellowship
• Plastic Surgery Integrated Resident Program Complement Increase
• ACGME International Surgical Rotation Approved; expands to 4residents for 2 months each per year.

Douglas Cassidy, M.D. Leads Simulation Curriculum in the Department’s New Simulation Space

Douglas Cassidy, M.D., is the newly appointed Director of Surgical Simulation for the MUSC General Surgery Residency Program. He is passionate about incorporating surgical simulation into a general surgery residency curriculum. He says simulation-based training cannot only improve technical skills, but also enhance communication skills, situational awareness, and inter professional team dynamics to optimize patient safety.Cassidy is exceedingly well-trained in surgical and simulation education. He joined MUSC in October, and the timing could not have been more perfect. The department was planning a significant renovation, including remodeling the general surgery resident education space.The upgrades included a brand new state-of-the-art Surgical Simulation Center, which features surgical trainers in laparoscopic surgery, robotic surgery, endoscopy, and microscopic surgery, as well as surgical equipment to practice open surgical skills and techniques. The main OR da Vinci Simulator is also in this simulation space.The skills lab serves as our residents’ SAGES FLS and FES testing center and will be utilized for classroom and small-group learning. The Center is adjacent to the resident workspace, making it accessible to the residents on a 24-hour, 7-days-a-week basis.

Curtis P. Artz MUSC Surgical Society Offers Fellowship and Support

The Curtis P. Artz MUSC Surgical Society, an organization for alumni of the MUSC Department of Surgery, was founded in 1974. As many know, Dr. Artz was a renowned trauma and burn surgeon who joined the faculty at MUSC in 1965. Known widely as a beloved teacher, scientist, and surgeon, he served as professor and chairman of the Department of Surgery until his untimely death in 1977. Since 2010, H. Biemann Othersen, Jr., M.D., has been Chair of the Curtis P. Artz MUSC Surgical Society. The Society was established to maintain fellowship, friendship, and a sense of unity, provide a means to communicate surgical achievements,celebrate distinguished alumni, and support our current residents throughout their training.During this year’s graduation dinner, as we welcomed our graduates into our alumni family, we paid tribute to Dr. Othersen, who has served MUSC for nearly 60 years and for the past 14 years as our Chair the Curtis P. Artz Society MUSC Surgical Society, where his passion has been cultivating an enduring relationship among the trainees, students, and faculty of the Department of Surgery.Dr. Othersen officially retired from this role in June, and we are pleased that Aaron P. Lesher, M.D., MSCR, Professor of Surgery and Pediatrics, has assumed this leadership role. Dr. Lesher is a proud graduate of the MUSC General Surgery Program and has been on faculty for the past 10 years.