NEWS

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. - Itzhak Avital, MD, PhD, MBA, FACS, has joined the Saint Peter’s University Hospital department of surgery as its chairman.

Dr. Avital is nationally and internationally known and respected in the surgical field, previously   as executive medical director, Bon Secours Cancer Institute, Richmond, Va.; Professor of surgery, Medical School, University of Novi Sad, Serbia; professor of surgery, Chinese National Colorectal Cancer Institute, Nanjing, China, and visiting professor of surgery, department of surgery, Hadassah Hospital, Israel. He previously served as head of the gastrointestinal (GI) and hepato-pancreato-biliary GI and HPB malignancies section of the surgery branch of the Solid Organ Cancer Stem Cells Laboratory at the National Cancer Institute/National Institute of Health in Bethesda, Md., from 2006 to 2012, and as assistant professor of surgery at Walter Reed Army Medical Center from 2010 to 2012.

“Dr. Avital is an experienced and innovative healthcare administrator,” said Ronald C. Rak, CEO of Saint Peter’s Healthcare System. “Among his achievements he has constructed multidisciplinary disease management teams, built a clinical trial unit, established a research division, led cancer operations encompassing multiple hospitals, created tumor and gene banks, and led philanthropic efforts to support a cancer institute. We are thrilled he is here.”

Dr. Avital received his MD, honors program in research, from New York University, School of Medicine, N.Y.; PhD in stem cells biology from Medical University of Nanjing, Jiangsu Integrative Center of Oncology, and his MBA from George Washington University, Washington, D.C.

His professional memberships include the Society of Surgical Oncology; American Transplant Society; American College of Surgeons; American Hepato-Pancreato-biliary Association; American Society of Clinical Oncology, International Society for Stem Cells Research, American Society for Peritoneal Surface Malignancies, and American Medical Association.