The director of the Comprehensive Transplant Center at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center is the newly seated head of the International College of Surgeons, U.S. Section, where he plans to focus his presidency on helping underserved communities through global outreach efforts.
Dr. Andrew Klein, who also serves as a professor of surgery at Cedars, is a pioneer in transplantation surgery and research. Since 2012, he has served in various leadership roles with the International College of Surgeons, including secretary, treasurer and vice president.
The global federation of general surgeons and surgical specialists, which was founded in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1935, has about five dozen organized national sections around the world and 5,000 members in more than 100 countries. The U.S. Section, based in Chicago, is the largest of the national sections.
“I am honored to continue to play a leadership role in ICS’s growth,” Klein said. “We are now developing a task force that will collate the critical elements required for successful international surgical missions, leveraging the experience, resources, logistical support and contacts of like-minded groups.”
Dr. Bruce Gewertz, who chairs the Department of Surgery at Cedars, said the ICS “is fortunate to have such an accomplished and thoughtful physician at the helm during this transformative time for healthcare.”
“For more than three decades, Dr. Klein has played a key leadership role in the national transplant arena by spearheading the development of national policies for equitable allocation of donor organs,” Gewertz said. “His excellence in patient care and extensive track record of global advocacy on behalf of transplant surgery make him uniquely qualified for this role.”
A fellow of the American College of Surgeons, Klein is a former chairman of the United Network of Organ Sharing (UNOS) Liver and Intestinal Transplantation Committee and was elected secretary of UNOS in 2004.
Klein earned his medical degree from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, where he also completed internships and residencies. He was a Harvard research fellow in transplantation immunology at Massachusetts General Hospital, served as a surgical registrar at John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford University, and was a liver transplant fellow at UCLA.
Prior to joining Cedars-Sinai, Klein was chief of the Division of Transplantation at Johns Hopkins University. He was the founding director of the Johns Hopkins Comprehensive Transplant Center and a tenured professor of surgery at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.