Abbas El-Sayed Abbas, MD, Professor and Vice Chair of the Department of Thoracic Medicine and Surgery at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University and Thoracic Surgeon-in-Chief for Temple University Health System, has been elected to serve as President of the Eastern Cardiothoracic Surgical Society (ECTSS).
Dr. Abbas’ one-year term as President begins on November 1 and runs through October 31, 2018. Dr. Abbas previously served as President-Elect of the ECTSS, and on the ECTSS Board of Directors.
The ECTSS was founded in 1963 with the stated objective of encouraging and stimulating investigation and study that will increase the knowledge of intrathoracic physiology, pathology and therapy, correlating such knowledge and disseminating it and to act as a common bond for physicians practicing this specialty and to represent them in problems related thereto. There are currently more than 300 active members of the society. In his message to the Society, Dr. Abbas elaborated on his vision of allowing the Society to become an instrument for advancing research and education in the field of cardiothoracic surgery in order to ultimately improve patient care.
Dr. Abbas specializes in minimally invasive and robotic thoracic surgery for lung cancer and esophageal cancer, including robotic lobectomy and totally endoscopic robotic esophagectomy. Other areas of specialization include endoscopic procedures for gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), esophageal and bronchial stents, robotic surgery for myasthenia gravis and thymic tumors, airway surgery, laser endoscopy and cryoendoscopy. His research interests include gene therapy for esophageal and lung cancer, outcome-based research in robotic surgery, esophageal cancer and lung cancer, the microenvironment of esophageal cancer (especially the role of tumor initiating cells) and transplant immunology.
Dr. Abbas has been at Temple since October 2012. Board-certified in surgery and thoracic surgery, he earned his medical degree and a master’s degree from Ain-Shams School of Medicine in Egypt. Dr. Abbas completed his surgical residency at Ain-Shams University Hospitals in Egypt and served as a surgical resident at Pinnacle Health in Harrisburg, Pa. He completed his general surgery residency at Pennsylvania Hospital, part of the University of Pennsylvania Health System in Philadelphia. Dr. Abbas later completed a cardiothoracic surgery fellowship at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. Following his fellowship, he served as an Assistant Professor of Surgery at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. Dr. Abbas was then appointed Director and Chief of Thoracic Surgery at the Ochsner Clinic in New Orleans.