Richard James Battafarano, M.D., Ph.D.
Dr. Richard James Battafarano is a thoracic surgeon in Johns Hopkins Department of Surgery. He is both the Director of the Division of General Thoracic Surgery and Johns Hopkins’ first regional director of general thoracic surgery. He has significant skill and experience in conducting complex surgical procedures in the treatment of chest diseases like pleural mesothelioma and specializes in minimally invasive surgeries and video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery. His research interests include the optimal management of lung cancer patients.[1]
Education and Career
After earning his undergraduate degree in Biology from Haverford College in Pennsylvania, Dr. Battarano earned his medical degree at Hahnemann University Medical College (today known as Drexel University College of Medicine) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and completed a surgical internship at Abington Memorial Hospital in Abington, Pennsylvania. He completed a four-year residency in General Surgery at the University of Minnesota Health Sciences Center that included enrollment in the University of Minnesota’s Ph.D. program in Biomedical Sciences, and pursued an additional residency in Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and New York Hospital.[2]
Following completion of his education, Dr. Battafarano became Assistant Professor of Surgery in the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri, as well as a thoracic surgeon at Barnes-Jewish Hospital, where he co-chaired the Siteman Cancer Center Protocol Review and Monitoring Committee and the hospital’s Cancer Committee. He then moved on to the University of Maryland’s Greenebaum Cancer Center, where he was head of the Division of Thoracic Surgery and a member of the surgical faculty.
Today, Dr. Battafarano applies his considerable surgical and teaching skills as part of Johns Hopkins’ Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center. He is an Associate Professor of Surgery and cares for patients at Johns Hopkins Hospital as Director of the Division of Thoracic Surgery. He also treats patients in Johns Hopkins’ regional locations, including Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center and Johns Hopkins Medicine at White Marsh and Green Spring Station as the hospital’s Regional Director of General Thoracic Surgery.
Research Interests
Dr. Battafarano’s research interests include improving outcomes in the surgical management of early-stage lung cancer and mesothelioma patients and in the optimal management of lung cancer patients with mediastinal lymph node metastases. He also engages in basic and translational research regarding the effect of surviving overexpression in the development of esophageal cancer.
Memberships
Memberships
- American Association for Cancer Research
- American Association for Thoracic Surgery
- American College of Surgeons
- International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer
- Society for Surgery of the Alimentary Tract
- Society of Thoracic Surgeons
- Southern Thoracic Surgical Association
Dr. Battafarano is a respected surgeon, researcher, and educator whose thoracic surgical skill and research have led to improved outcomes for the mesothelioma patients he treats.
