Thomas Varghese, MD, MS, FACS

Dr. Varghese received his medical degree from Government Medical College-Trivandrum, University of Kerala, India and his Master of Science in Clinical Investigation from Northwestern University. He did his General Surgery Residency at Northwestern University, a research fellowship in Organ Transplantation at Northwestern University, and a Cardiothoracic Surgery Fellowship at the University of Michigan. Dr. Varghese’s main clinical interests are in Thoracic Surgical Oncology, and he is a national leader in minimally invasive applications for general thoracic surgery, including recognition by Castle Connolly as one of America’s “Top Docs”, and top 10% in the nation by Press Ganey for patient satisfaction scores.

Dr. Varghese took his first faculty appointment at the University of Washington in 2007, where he was the Director of Thoracic Surgery at Harborview Medical Center and Associate Program Director of the Cardiothoracic Surgery Residency until 2015. He is currently the Executive Medical Director (Interim) of Huntsman Cancer Institute, Chief Value Officer of Huntsman Cancer Institute, Head of the Section of General Thoracic Surgery and Program Director of the Cardiothoracic Surgery Residency at the University of Utah. Tom is an Associate Professor (Tenure) in the Department of Surgery, and holds leadership positions in the Society of Thoracic Surgeons, Thoracic Surgery Directors Association, American College of Surgeons, and the Surgical Outcomes Club. He was elected to the inaugural class of the ACS Academy of Master Surgeon Educators in 2018, is a member of multiple surgical societies, and is the Deputy Editor of Digital Media and Digital Scholarship for the Annals of Thoracic Surgery.

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 is active at 230 clinical sites across the nation. He has a track record of peer-reviewed publications and extramural funding, including current RO1 funding from the National Cancer Institute for a pragmatic randomized clinical trial examining the effects of a unique Prescription Exercise Prescription (PEP) for lung cancer surgical patients.