As an academic multi-organ transplant and hepatobiliary surgeon with a special interest in health services research at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Dr. Shimul A. Shah has strived for clinical excellence, innovation, and scholarship in the surgical arena. His academic career started at University of Massachusetts Medical School in 2006, where he rose to Associate Professor of Surgery after five years in practice. In 2011, while on faculty at the University of Massachusetts, Dr. Shah received the Frederick J. McCready Award for Resident Teacher of the Year. In 2012, Dr. Shah transitioned to the University of Cincinnati as Director of Liver Transplantation and Hepatobiliary Surgery and took over as Director of Solid Organ Transplantation in 2017.
Dr. Shah has a very busy clinical practice in liver, kidney and pancreas transplantation. Additionally, he has a thriving hepatobiliary surgery practice specializing in the care of patients with end-stage liver disease, colorectal cancer metastases, biliary disorders and hepatocellular carcinoma. The UCMC liver transplant volume has grown 330% since his arrival in late 2012, and the multidisciplinary program has fostered increased clinical productivity in many different departments at UC Health. Finally, through his efforts to provide meticulous clinical care combined with the utmost in customer service for his patients, he was named the first recipient of the James and Catherine Orr Endowed Chair in Liver Transplantation. He has been Division Director of Solid Organ Transplantation since 2017 and currently serves the Director of the Transplant Service Line.
In the research arena, Dr. Shah has made contributions to the understanding and management of liver transplantation and hepatobiliary surgery as it relates to surgical outcomes. He has also investigated under-utilization and disparities in surgical and cancer care and authored or co-authored nearly 230 publications and 20 book chapters. Since being in Cincinnati, Dr. Shah initiated and currently directs the Cincinnati Research in Outcomes and Safety in Surgery (CROSS), a multidisciplinary group focused on health services research that has grown to include ten surgical faculty and a research team of over twenty students. More recently, his work has been focused on clinical care and redesign of patient centered care after major surgery. His group has developed a tele-medical home program for post-liver transplantation patients and published the first pilot program demonstrating its utility and feasibility. He initiated the first randomized controlled trial to assess the clinical effectiveness of telehealth versus standard of care which was the first of its kind in surgery and transplantation and has the potential to change the way patients are cared for after major surgery.
He is currently the Vice Chair of Health Services Research in Department of Surgery and runs a thriving transplant program between UC College of Medicine and UC Health. He holds leadership positions with the AHPBA and UNOS nationally and the UC Foundation Board locally.
