Nationally Recognized Transplant Surgeon Joins Tampa General

Tampa FL

18 February, 2022

9:36 PM

Description

Press release from TGH: Feb. 18, 2022 Dr. Anthony Watkins, a nationally recognized transplant surgeon, has been appointed surgical director of kidney transplant within the Transplant Institute at Tampa General Hospital (TGH), a national leader in life-saving organ transplants. Watkins will help lead the way in furthering Tampa General's reputation as a leading academic medical center. He has also been appointed a clinical associate professor of surgery in the Department of Surgery at USF Health Morsani College of Medicine. "Tampa General Hospital is one of the top transplant programs in the country and we'll continue to provide this potentially life-changing service at the highest level,'' said Watkins, who was recruited by Tampa General from NYU Langone Health in New York, N.Y., where he was a clinical associate professor of surgery. Prior to that, he was an assistant professor of surgery at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medicine, also in New York City. "I'm thrilled to be part of this dedicated group of people,'' Watkins said. "The culture of a hospital is everything and this feels like a family environment. When a team works together, the quality of care is elevated and patients are able to sense that feeling of camaraderie, which in turn makes them more comfortable." Born in Nashville, Tenn., Watkins earned his medical degree from the University of Tennessee in 2002, followed by post-doctoral training, faculty and hospital positions in various centers around the state of New York. He has been involved in all aspects of the clinical care of liver, kidney and pancreas transplant patients, hepatobiliary (liver and bile duct), general and minimally invasive surgeries. The practice of medicine runs in Watkins' family. His grandfather is a retired cardiothoracic surgeon who was the chair of the Department of Surgery at Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science in Los Angeles, Calif. His uncle is an orthopedic surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, and a cousin is a vascular surgeon in North Carolina. "I come from a family of healers,'' he said. "It's in our genes to go into health care and take care of patients." His roles have included preoperative/pre-transplant evaluation, operative surgery, peri-operative management, in-patient care, long-term follow-up, deceased donor organ procurement, and living donor nephrectomies. Additionally, he has been active in the revision and development of clinical protocols, as well as the implementation of quality assurance/performance improvement initiatives. Watkins completed his transplant fellowship (abdominal multi-organ transplant surgery) at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia Medical Center in New York, working with many pioneers in the field. He is board certified in general surgery by the American Board of Surgery and is accredited and certified by the American Society of Transplant Surgeons. "Our national rankings showcase the expertise and advanced care Tampa General provides to our patients," said Dr. Kiran Dhanireddy, executive director of Tampa General's Transplant Institute. "The addition of a surgeon leader of Dr. Watkins' caliber to our Transplant Institute will further our vision to be the safest and most innovative academic health system in America." In 2020, Tampa General's Kidney Transplant Program was ranked third in the nation by volume and in 2021, the TGH Transplant Institute performed 563 organ transplants. This is possible because the team is comprised of world-class specialists focused on providing individualized, ongoing care for patients with advanced kidney disease. A kidney transplant is used to treat kidney failure (also called end-stage renal disease, ESRD), a condition in which kidneys can function at only a fraction of their normal capacity. People with end-stage kidney disease need either dialysis or a kidney transplant to stay alive. More than 90,000 Americans currently are waiting for a potentially life-saving kidney donation. Every 10 minutes, a person is added to the overall national transplant waiting list, and 82 percent of all patients waiting for an organ donation are in need of a kidney, according to Donate Life America, a nonprofit advocacy group based in Virginia. To become an organ donor, Florida residents can visit Donate Life Florida. To learn more about the Tampa General Transplant Institute, please visit: https://www.tgh.org/services/transplant. This press release was produced by TGH. The views expressed here are the author's own.