Thomas K. Varghese Jr., MD, MS, MBA, FACS
Dr. Thomas K. Varghese Jr. is the Chief of the Section of General Thoracic Surgery at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Utah; Chief Value Officer at the Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI); Associate Chief Medical Quality Officer at HCI; and Professor in the Department of Surgery at the University of Utah School of Medicine. He is nationally recognized as a leading thoracic surgical oncologist dedicated to improving patient outcomes.[1]
Dr. Varghese is particularly skilled in minimally invasive applications for lung cancer and malignant pleural mesothelioma. He receives high patient satisfaction scores.
Education and Career
Dr. Varghese’s medical education began at the Government Medical College, Trivandrum, University of Kerala. He completed his General Surgery residency at Northwestern University in Chicago, where he also earned a master’s degree in clinical investigation during his research fellowship and also completed a fellowship in Organ Transplantation. He continued his education with a fellowship in Cardiothoracic Surgery at the University of Michigan.[1]
After completing his medical education, Dr. Varghese served as the Director of Thoracic Surgery at Harborview Medical Center of the University of Washington. While there, he created the Strong for Surgery program, which shifted the conventional wisdom about how to help patients improve their outcomes to actions taken before surgery. The program is now active at 230 sites across the nation, with plans to expand further nationally and internationally.[2] He accepted a role at Huntsman Cancer Institute to build a center of excellence in general thoracic surgery. He also mentors and sponsors medical students, residents, fellows, junior faculty, post-doctoral research graduates, and PhD students.[3]
Professional Memberships and Activities
Dr. Varghese holds national leadership positions in the Society of Thoracic Surgeons, Thoracic Surgery Directors Association, American College of Surgeons, and the Society of University Surgeons. He was elected to the inaugural class of the ACS Academy of Master Surgeon Educators and was the first Chair of the Thoracic Surgery Outcomes Research Network. He is also the Deputy Editor of Digital Media and Digital Scholarship for the Annals of Thoracic Surgery.[1]
Research
Dr. Varghese is an avid researcher focused on the optimization of patient health before surgery, surgeon performance, and health system outcomes. He has been recognized as a Huntsman Translational Scholar by the Huntsman Cancer Institute, an honor that provides financial support to promote cancer-focused studies that accelerate the development of new treatments. One of his notable projects is the Precision Exercise Prescription clinical trial funded by the National Cancer Institute: its goal is to learn whether an exercise program tailored for each person improves long-term outcomes after lung cancer surgery.[2]
Some of his published work includes:[1]
Morris BB, Wages NA, Grant PA, Stukenberg PT, Gentzler RD, Hall RD, Akerley WL, Varghese TK, Arnold SM, Williams TM, Coppola V, Jones DR, Auble DT, Mayo MW (2021). MYBL2-Driven Transcriptional Programs Link Replication Stress and Error-prone DNA Repair With Genomic Instability in Lung Adenocarcinoma. Front Oncol, 10, 585551.
Does Tweeting Improve Citations? One-Year Results From the TSSMN Prospective Randomized Trial. Ann Thorac Surg, 111(1), 296-300. Luc JGY, Archer MA, Arora RC, Bender EM, Blitz A, Cooke DT, Hlci TN, Kidane B, Ouzounian M, Varghese TK Jr, Antonoff MB (2020).
The Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) Virtual Conference Taskforce: Recommendations for Hosting a Virtual Surgical Meeting. Ann Thorac Surg, 111(1), 16-23. Antonoff MB, Mitzman B, Backhus L, Bradbury ST, Chatterjee S, Cooke DT, Crestanello J, Goldstone AB, Kim KM, Nguyen TC, Romano JC, Vaporciyan AA, Varghese TK Jr (2020).
Impact of Multimodality Treatment Sequence on Survival in Stage IIB Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer. Ann Thorac Surg. Stokes SM, Massarweh NN, Stringham JR, Varghese TK Jr (2020).
Exercise and lung cancer surgery: A systematic review of randomized controlled trials. Crit Rev Oncol Hematol, 156, 103086. Himbert C, Klossner N, Coletta AM, Barnes CA, Wiskemann J, LaStayo PC, Varghese TK Jr, Ulrich CM (2020).
Perioperative Pain Management after Ambulatory Abdominal Surgery: An American College of Surgeons Systematic Review. J Am Coll Surg, 231(5), 572-601.e27. Hu QL, Dworsky JQ, Beck AC, Gilbert EW, Pockaj BA, Varghese TK Jr, Maggard-Gibbons M, Ko CY, Weigel RJ, Laronga C (2020).
Low anti-Factor Xa level predicts 90-day Symptomatic Venous Thromboembolism in Surgical Patients Receiving Enoxaparin Prophylaxis: A Pooled Analysis of Eight Clinical Trials. Ann Surg. Pannucci CJ, Fleming KI, Varghese TK Jr, Stringham J, Huang LC, Pickron TB, Prazak AM, Bertolaccini C, Momeni A (2020).
Hospital Costs Following Surgical Complications: A Value-driven Outcomes Analysis of Cost Savings Due to Complication Prevention. Ann Surg, 275, e375-e381. Stokes SM, Scaife CL, Brooke BS, Glasgow RE, Mulvihill SJ, Finlayson SRG, Varghese TK Jr (2020).
