Elliot Wakeam

Area of practice

Minimally invasive thoracic surgery, including treatments for esophageal cancer, lung cancer, mediastinal tumors including thymoma and thymic cancer, mesothelioma, reflux disease, chest wall tumors, sarcoma, tracheal and airway surgery, and lung transplantation

Bio

Dr. Wakeam attended medical school at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, graduating magna cum laude, and was elected to the National Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society. He then returned to Toronto for general surgical and thoracic surgical training. While a general surgery resident, he pursued a master's degree in public health (MPH) from Harvard and a surgical outcomes research fellowship at the Brigham and Women's Hospital in the Center for Surgery and Public Health. During his general surgery residency, he was awarded the Resident Mentor Award, given to the best resident mentor and role model in the graduating resident class. Following his general thoracic fellowship training, he undertook additional sub-specialty training in lung transplantation as a fellow in the Toronto Lung Transplant Program at Toronto General Hospital.

After training, Dr. Wakeam joined the faculty at the University of Michigan in 2019 as assistant professor in the Section of Thoracic Surgery. While at the University of Michigan, he maintained a busy general thoracic practice with a focus in foregut surgery as part of the University of Michigan Foregut Program, one of the largest in the United States. In his second year of practice, he was appointed the surgical director of the Michigan lung transplant program. He also founded and co-led the multidisciplinary Michigan Complex Airway Intervention Program (M-AIR), a multidisciplinary program to treat complex airway disease.

At UHN, he practices minimally invasive general thoracic surgery with a focus in esophageal and airway surgery and will participate in the Toronto lung transplant program at TGH. His research interests are in development of clinical trials in lung transplant and thoracic oncology, quality improvement, and health policy and quality measurement in lung transplantation.

Education

Medical School

Jefferson Medical College, 2010

Residency

University of Toronto, General Surgery, 2017

Fellowship

• Toronto General Hospital, Lung Transplant, 2019
• Toronto General Hospital, Thoracic Surgery, 2019

Board Certifications

• Thoracic Surgery, Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Canada
• Surgery, Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Canada
• Surgery, American Board of Surgery

Professional Organizations

• Fellow of the American College of Surgeons (FACS)
• American Association of Thoracic Surgery
• American Board of Surgery (ABS), Certification in Surgery
• Canadian Association of Thoracic Surgery
• Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Canada (FRCSC) – General Surgery
• Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Canada (FRCSC) – Thoracic Surgery
• International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation