Centers and Programs

Clinical Excellence through Collaborative, Multidisciplinary Medicine

Throughout the Department of Surgery, distinct sections and divisions provide expert clinical care in areas such as organ transplantation and cardiac, thoracic, renal, endocrine, and breast surgery. These cornerstones of the department attract patients who know they can expect the best level of care, physicians and surgeons who want to practice and research on the frontiers of medicine, and medical students who wish to learn from the very best.

The primary surgical disciplines are necessarily complimented by additional disciplines including medicine, radiology, and rehabilitation, and are supported by outstanding research divisions that continually expand the horizons of each field. From a care perspective, it is important that all services be carefully coordinated and available in one location. The Department of Surgery provides this comprehensive,multidisciplinary care through its programs and centers, which draw upon specialized expertise from departments throughout Columbia University Medical Center in order to provide complete care for a disorder or disease area. They include the IL-2 Program, the Center for Adolescent Bariatric Surgery, the Center for Advanced Cardiac Care, and many others.Many of these units reflect the emergence of new understanding or technology that did not exist until relatively recently. Each relies on the collaboration of multiple specialties in an interdisciplinary fashion, an approach which yields great success in both patient care and research. They deliver specialized care to thousands of patients every year and are the source of some of the most cutting-edge medical research being done today. "The development of these multidisciplinary centers supports our primary mission: to provide the absolute best care to our patients," says Craig R. Smith, MD, Interim Chairman, Columbia University Medical Center. This special issue of Healthpoints is devoted to introducing and exploring many of these unique services.