Board Member

TOM DEMEESTER – Director and Chairman of the Board

Dr. Tom R. DeMeester, M.D. is Professor and Chairman Emeritus, Department of Surgery Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California.

Dr. DeMeester received his medical degree from the University of Michigan and completed his surgical residency in general and thoracic surgery at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland.

Dr. DeMeester’s interest is in foregut and pulmonary disease.  He, along with Dr. Lawrence Johnson, are the originators and developers of the field of non-invasive foregut ambulatory monitoring.  With this technology Dr. DeMeester has made a number of important contributions to the understanding of the physiology and patho-physiology of diseases of the esophagus and their surgical correction.  In the area of oncology he has focused on malignant degeneration of Barrett’s esophagus and the surgical treatment of esophageal cancer.  

His studies have resulted in 490 publications in peer-reviewed journals, 175 book chapters and 9 books.  He has been invited to present 43 named lectures.  He received an honorary Doctorate of Medicine degree from Linköping University, Sweden; Lund University, Sweden; the University of Athens, Greece, and the University of Padua, Italy.  Dr. DeMeester was elected a member of The Johns Hopkins University Society of Scholars and an Officer of the French Order of Academic Palms.  He has received honorary membership in the European Surgical Association, German Society of Visceral Surgery, Spanish Association of Surgeons, Association of Upper Gastrointestinal Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland, Hungarian Surgical Society and is an honorary fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. He served on several editorial boards and is an ad hoc reviewer of many surgical and medical journals. He was past president of 5 surgical societies. In 2008 Dr. DeMeester received the American Gastroenterological Association’s Masters Award in Gastroenterology for Sustained Achievement in Digestive Surgery, and in 2012 the American Surgical Association awarded Dr, DeMeester the Medallion for Advancement of Surgical Care.