Faculty & Staff
- Surena Matin, M.D., Medical Director
Dr. Matin is a professor in Urology. In his MINTOS role, he interacts with all surgical specialties and has either been responsible for or guided institutional purchasing of more than $12 million in surgical technology over the past ten years. Dr. Matin has an active clinical practice specializing in the minimally invasive treatment of Genitourinary Cancers, including the entire spectrum of renal cell carcinoma (RCC), upper urinary tract urothelial cancer (UTUC) and prostate cancer. Specific areas of interest include improving clinical risk stratification of and neoadjuvant approaches to UTUC, retroperitoneal lymphadenectomy for UTUC, adjuvant therapies for RCC, minimally invasive and non-invasive therapies for RCC and UTUC, robotic surgery and microlaparoscopic approaches for adrenal tumors. His clinical care and research focus is on the optimal integration of minimally invasive interventions within the entire spectrum of oncologic care. His primary research efforts are based on clinical research, yet he actively and substantively collaborates with other clinicians, translational scientists and basic scientists.
- Pamela Soliman, M.D., Director of Education
Dr. Soliman is an associate professor in Gynecologic Oncology and Reproductive Medicine. In her MINTOS role, she has directed the annual surgical education and laboratory course for the surgical fellows for the last six years. Her research interest is in minimally invasive and robotic surgery. She has been instrumental in developing a robotic surgery database in her department. She has also made excellent contributions in minimally invasive surgery education, particularly in the learning curve of minimally invasive procedures. She is the principle investigator of a prospective trial evaluating the role of PET/CT and sentinel lymph node mapping in the treatment of high risk endometrial cancer. Dr. Soliman is the current chair of the Gynecologic Oncology Special Interest Group in the American Association of Gynecologic Laparoscopists.
- George Chang, M.D., Director of Clinical Operations
Dr. Chang is a professor in Surgical Oncology, chief of Colorectal Surgical Oncology; and associate medical director of the Colorectal Center. His clinical interests are in the multidisciplinary treatment of malignant diseases of the colon and rectum with an emphasis on minimally invasive surgery and complex locally advanced and recurrent disease. Dr. Chang is an internationally recognized leader in minimally invasive robotic surgery for rectal cancer. He has led the development of novel techniques to improve the treatment and enhance the recovery of patients with colon and rectal cancer. In addition, his research program is focused on improving the outcomes and the delivery of colon and rectal cancer therapies through registry based evaluation, clinical trials and patient centered outcomes research.
- Brian Bednarski, M.D., Director of Education
Dr. Bednarski is an assistant professor in Surgical Oncology. His clinical practice is focused on the surgical management of colon and rectal cancer including laparoscopicand robotic surgery. His current clinical research interests are focused on incorporating telemedicine technology to improve post-operative care for patients undergoing surgery for colorectal cancer. Additionally, he is actively engaged in designing and implementing novel educational strategies to impact the translation of knowledge and skill for fellows in the Complex General Surgical Oncology (CGSO) fellowship.
- Matthew Katz, M.D., Director of Telemedicine
Dr. Katz is an associate professor in Surgical Oncology. His clinical and research interests focus on patients with pancreatic cancer. He has extensive experience in the design and conduct of clinical trials and is currently the national PI of an intergroup cooperative group study of the effects of preoperative therapy on patients with advanced pancreatic cancer. He has published over 90 original articles that have described novel multimodality treatment approaches for patients with this disease. He has a thriving pancreatic surgery clinical practice.
- John Davis, M.D., Director of Business Planning and Development
Dr. Davis is an associate professor of Urology, where he holds Director titles of the Urosurgical Prostate Cancer Program and Urologic Oncology clinics. His clinical interests are in patients with urologic cancers, laparoscopic/robotic surgery, and general urology. Academic interests include quality of life after prostate cancer treatment, outcomes for robotic radical prostatectomy, high risk prostate cancer trials, active surveillance for prostate cancer, and development of robotic surgical techniques for invasive bladder cancer.