Ajita Prabhu, MD, Appointed New Chair of General Surgery

Cleveland Clinic has named Ajita Prabhu, MD, as its new Chair of the General Surgery Department. Dr. Prabhu is a Professor of Surgery at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine and the immediate past Program Director of the General Surgery Residency Program at Cleveland Clinic.

She is also an examiner for the American Board of Surgery and one of four national faculty members for the American College of Surgeons Residents as Teachers and Leaders Course. She serves as an ad hoc editor for the journals JAMA Surgery, Journal of the American College of Surgeons, and the New England Journal of Medicine. She also sits on the Editorial Board of Annals of Surgery.

Dr. Prabhu earned her medical degree at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine and completed her residency at Maine Medical Center and fellowship at Carolinas Medical Center. She has been at Cleveland Clinic since 2016.

She was appointed to the position following the decision by Matthew Walsh, MD, to retire as Chair of the General Surgery Department.

“I would like to thank Dr. Walsh for his leadership of General Surgery and the legacy of success that the department realized under his direction,” says Miguel Regueiro, MD, Executive Vice President, Enterprise Chief of Staff. “For decades, Dr. Walsh embodied the highest ideals of academic surgery at Cleveland Clinic — as an exceptional clinician, educator and visionary leader. Now, we are very excited about Dr. Prabhu’s appointment and the success we believe she will bring to the department.”

Dr. Prabhu recently sat down with ConsultQD to discuss her passions and vision for the Department of General Surgery.

Q. Can you discuss your medical background and what drew you to surgery?

A. I knew that I wanted to do something likely procedural, and I was doing a summer rural program in Lancaster, South Carolina where they were trying to encourage medical students to go into primary care.Pretty quickly, though, I discovered that primary wasn’t the best match for me; my dad was an anesthesiologist, so I was a little more comfortable in the operating room space.

At the hospital, there was a surgeon who took me under his wing, and then one morning, he invited me to go to the OR with him. I told him that I had never scrubbed in before, and he laughed and told me to just do what he did. So, every day after that for the entire summer, he took me to surgery with him.

He was a surgeon in that town for over 50 years, but he passed away not too long ago. I never actually got to tell him that I became a surgeon or got to the position I have here at Cleveland Clinic. I was fortunate to connect with his family after he passed away, though, to let them know what an important legacy he left and the impact he has had on my life.

Q. What does stepping into the role of Chair of General Surgery mean to you at this point in your career?

A. I would say that this will be the privilege and honor of my career because I am now in a position to help support the department that I love in ways that can be meaningful —growing our surgical mission, helping our surgeons develop their careers and get career satisfaction in the care of patients. I think it's an honor to be in this role.

I would also say that for me, this is what I enjoy doing. I enjoy working with other people and supporting them along their paths. The opportunity to do that in an organized fashion is a pretty big privilege for me.

Q. Given your role as Program Director of the General Surgery Residency Program, how do you approach mentorship and support for early-career surgeons and trainees?

A.My main approach is towards coaching. I enjoy trying to understand what people's goals are and then helping them work towards those goals.

I also enjoy asking questions that help people figure out their own path. I think that's probably where most of the mentorship is, with just helping people to clarify their thoughts and pursue things on their own terms.

The other thing that I think is especially important with this opportunity is to sponsor other people. So, recognizing the opportunities for them to grow their career or grow their reputation nationally and whatever is necessary to help people take advantage of their opportunities.

Along those lines, I also want to acknowledge that Dr. Walsh has led this department to a really good place over his tenure. He is extremely well respected, not only clinically but in the leadership space around what he's done for this department. For me personally, he has been a great mentor and a great friend, and I would say that if there's a short list of people who have helped shape my career and who I am today, he is absolutely one of them.

Q. How do you define success for a modern department of general surgery?

A. I think the biggest thing is keeping the patients at the center of our focus. For a modern general surgery department, our focus should still be on the old things, which are the patients and patient care. Delivering high-quality care to patients and ensuring that patients have access to high-quality care across our locations is really the cornerstone of everything that we do.

We have to make sure we are engaging responsibly with our community and with technology. We also need to make sure that we continue to push the boundaries of what we can offer to our patients in terms of care and treatment. This also means having surgeons who can deliver exceptional care while simultaneously growing their careers and elevating our department. And being where we are in the global space with our research efforts and our technological innovation is really the icing on top.

Q. As you step into the role, what are some of your top priorities?

A. This is a really good time for us to focus on collaboration and building inroads and getting to know each other. We're a large department spanning several locations. I believe getting our big group to collaborate and develop more unity and closeness as a department is a really important factor in our success as we move forward. I think people are hungry for that.

I think we also have a really good opportunity to align our research efforts and work more collaboratively as a department. I want to start streamlining our research resources and take more of an organized and cohesive approach to that.

Other opportunities for us include embracing and developing a strategy for integrating technology into care, including robotic surgery technology, AI and other emerging innovations. We need to have a consistent departmental strategy that spans across our locations.

When it comes to data-driven tools and AI, I think that we should embrace technology to augment how we practice medicine and perform surgery. That being said, we also need to be careful to maintain the human touch because, to me, that part of it is not replaceable. When you look at the patient experience, I think that is one of the things that's the most memorable and impactful.