Historic brief and structure
In 1925 Vanderbilt Medical School and Hospital opened its west Nashville campus. The goal was to create an optimal environment for sharing medical knowledge and experience with hospital, medical school, and research facilities in one location. Since 1925 the Vanderbilt Department of Surgery has evolved in ways that extend this mission to improve health care by focusing on education, patient care, and research. During 1974-1975 it reorganized to become part of the Vanderbilt Section of Surgical Sciences, joining a number of surgical specialties and sub-specialties.
Vanderbilt Section of Surgical Sciences unites various multidisciplinary surgical specialties into one framework committed to the same vision – becoming the preeminent surgical program. Leading the Section is, Chair, Seth J. Karp, M.D., the H. William Scott Jr. Professor and Surgeon-in-Chief.
The Section is divided into seven surgical departments, each led by a chair appointed by the dean and executive faculty. They, in turn, serve on the Section Executive Committee alongside the heads of each Division. These departments and divisions report to the Section and are as follows:
Department of Cardiac Surgery
- Division of Pediatric Cardiac Surgery
Department of Neurological Surgery
- Division of Pediatric Neurological Surgery
Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery
- Division of Dentistry
Department of Surgery
- Division of General Surgery
- Division of Surgical Research
- Division of Surgical Oncology & Endocrine Surgery
- Division of Kidney & Pancreas Transplantation
- Division of Hepatobiliary Surgery & Liver Transplantation
- Division of Acute Care Surgery
- Williamson County Surgery
Department of Pediatric Surgery
Department of Plastic Surgery
- Division of Hand and Upper Extremity Surgery
- Division of Pediatric Plastic Surgery
Department of Thoracic Surgery
Department of Vascular Surgery
Surgical Research
