Joseph Scalea, M.D. Honored with the ASTS Rising Stars in Transplantation Surgery Award

Lauren Hooker
November 30, 2022
Dr. Scalea

Transplant surgeon and Vice Chair of Innovation in the Department of Surgery Joseph Scalea, M.D. was honored with the 2023 ASTS Rising Stars in Transplantation Surgery Award. The ASTS Rising Stars in Transplantation Surgery Award recognizes individuals who have made a significant, profound, or potentially transformative contribution to the discipline.

Dr. Scalea is an innovator and entrepreneur whose research interests focus on improving outcomes and access to care for patients needing life-saving transplantation and researching strategies to achieve immune tolerance in allogeneic solid organ transplantation. In 2019, he received international notoriety for pioneering drones for organ transplants. He has received grant funding from the American Surgical Association and the NIH. His NIH grant aims to help understand the environmental factors that affect organs in transit. Using the same model, he also studies tolerogenic myeloid cells and novel fusion proteins.

Based on his research, Dr. Scalea co-founded several companies: MediGO, a healthcare supply chain technology company solving critical problems in transplant logistics, and MissionGO, an unmanned aviation and services organization that assists with first responder needs. These rapidly growing ventures generated more than $15M in funding, and MissionGO was awarded a $50M national contract for infrastructure support.  As a result, Dr. Scalea and his team won the Thomas Edison Gold award in 2022 and MediGO was recognized by FAST Company magazine as a World Changing Idea. His latest venture, Petra, leverages AI solutions for burnout and physician variability.

As the inaugural Vice Chair of Innovation in the Department of Surgery, Dr. Scalea will expand his experience in clinical medicine, academic leadership, commercialization, and innovation to help faculty translate innovative ideas from the laboratory to industry. At MUSC Health, Dr. Scalea is the Executive Medical Director for MUSC Health Solutions, an organization that assesses and commercializes internal and early-stage external technologies. In this role, Dr. Scalea helps guide MUSC Health Solutions’ strategic investments, and he guides technology development and implementation. Current investment activities include innovations in mobile-first patient-centered telehealth platforms, sleep science innovations, various MedTech concepts, and a technology-leveraged concierge surgical care model for elite athletes. He also serves MUSC Health as the Surgical Director of the Kidney Transplant Program and the Director of Hepatology, Nephrology, and Transplant ICCE Quality and Innovation.

Dr. Scalea received his medical degree and surgical training from the University of Maryland and completed his transplant fellowship at the University of Wisconsin and his post-doctoral fellowship at the Harvard Medical School, Transplantation Biology Research Center.