Thomas K. Varghese Jr., MD, MS

Languages Spoken: English, Malayalam

Dr. Thomas Varghese Jr. is the Executive Medical Director (Interim) and Chief Value Officer at the Huntsman Cancer Institute, Head of the Section of General Thoracic Surgery, and Program Director of the Integrated Thoracic Surgery Residency and Cardiothoracic Surgery Fellowship at the University of Utah. He is also Professor (Tenure Track) in the Department of Surgery, University of Utah School of Medicine.

Dr. Varghese's clinical interests are in Thoracic Surgical Oncology. He is a national leader in minimally invasive applications for general thoracic surgery, he is recognized by Castle Connolly as one of America’s “Top Docs”, and is ranked in the top 10% of the nation by Press Ganey for patient satisfaction scores.

His research interests bridge the world of Educational Research and Health Services Research, specifically in the arena of optimizing performance at the patient, surgeon and system levels. He created the Strong for Surgery program while he was at the University of Washington, which is now a formal Quality Improvement program of the American College of Surgeons, and active at 331 clinical sites across the nation ( https://www.facs.org/quality-programs/strong-for-surgery ). He has a track record of peer-reviewed publications and extramural funding, including current RO1 funding from the National Cancer Institute with Co-PIs Dr. Neli Ulrich (Dept. of Population Sciences) and Dr. Paul LaStayo (Dept. of Physical Therapy) for a pragmatic randomized clinical trial examining the effects of a unique Prescription Exercise Prescription (PEP) for lung cancer surgical patients utlizing an integrated Physical Therapy Clinic model (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30559162 )

Dr. Varghese holds national leadership positions in the Society of Thoracic Surgeons, Thoracic Surgery Directors Association, American College of Surgeons, National Cancer Care Network, and the Society of University Surgeons. He was elected to the inaugural class of the ACS Academy of Master Surgeon Educators in 2018, and was the first Chair of the Thoracic Surgery Outcomes Research Network (ThORN), a collaborative that spans 26 institutions across the nation [http://thoracicoutcomes.org/]. Dr. Varghese is active on social media, blue check-marked on Twitter (@tomvarghesejr ) and is the Deputy Editor of Digital Media and Digital Scholarship for the Annals of Thoracic Surgery.

At the University of Utah, Dr. Varghese is a member of an active collaborative of Chief Value Officers, Education Leaders and Health Services Researchers that embraces the Triple Aim (outstanding patient-centered care, improving the health of the population we serve, reducing the cost of care) with the goal of maintaining the University of Utah at the highest level of patient care in the country.

Dr. Thomas Varghese Jr. is the Executive Medical Director (Interim) and Chief Value Officer at the Huntsman Cancer Institute, Head of the Section of General Thoracic Surgery, and Program Director of the Integrated Thoracic Surgery Residency and Cardiothoracic Surgery Fellowship at the University of Utah. He is also Professor (Tenure Track) in the Department of Surgery, University of Utah School of Medicine.

Dr. Varghese's clinical interests are in Thoracic Surgical Oncology. He is a national leader in minimally invasive applications for general thoracic surgery, he is recognized by Castle Connolly as one of America’s “Top Docs”, and is ranked in the top 10% of the nation by Press Ganey for patient satisfaction scores.

His research interests bridge the world of Educational Research and Health Services Research, specifically in the arena of optimizing performance at the patient, surgeon and system levels. He created the Strong for Surgery program while he was at the University of Washington, which is now a formal Quality Improvement program of the American College of Surgeons, and active at 331 clinical sites across the nation ( https://www.facs.org/quality-programs/strong-for-surgery ). He has a track record of peer-reviewed publications and extramural funding, including current RO1 funding from the National Cancer Institute with Co-PIs Dr. Neli Ulrich (Dept. of Population Sciences) and Dr. Paul LaStayo (Dept. of Physical Therapy) for a pragmatic randomized clinical trial examining the effects of a unique Prescription Exercise Prescription (PEP) for lung cancer surgical patients utlizing an integrated Physical Therapy Clinic model (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30559162 )

Dr. Varghese holds national leadership positions in the Society of Thoracic Surgeons, Thoracic Surgery Directors Association, American College of Surgeons, National Cancer Care Network, and the Society of University Surgeons. He was elected to the inaugural class of the ACS Academy of Master Surgeon Educators in 2018, and was the first Chair of the Thoracic Surgery Outcomes Research Network (ThORN), a collaborative that spans 26 institutions across the nation [http://thoracicoutcomes.org/]. Dr. Varghese is active on social media, blue check-marked on Twitter (@tomvarghesejr ) and is the Deputy Editor of Digital Media and Digital Scholarship for the Annals of Thoracic Surgery.

At the University of Utah, Dr. Varghese is a member of an active collaborative of Chief Value Officers, Education Leaders and Health Services Researchers that embraces the Triple Aim (outstanding patient-centered care, improving the health of the population we serve, reducing the cost of care) with the goal of maintaining the University of Utah at the highest level of patient care in the country.