2025 WINTER UPDATE FROM DR. GAMBLIN
Dear University of Utah Surgery Alumni,
I am grateful to Dr. Ed Nelson for his kind invitation to provide an update and forecast regarding Surgical Oncology at the University of Utah. I cannot adequately thank Dr. Courtney Scaife for her leadership and support as I arrived in Salt Lake City in July of this year. I met Dr. Scaife in 1996 during her internship when I was a fourth-year medical student. She was one of the first people I reached out to regarding this leadership opportunity, and I see her years of investment every day in Surgical Oncology here in Utah.
My personal background began in Mississippi, where I attended undergraduate and medical school. I then sought general surgery training at Mercer University and surgical oncology training at the University of Pittsburgh, where I remained on the faculty for five years and obtained a Master of Science in Clinical Research. In 2010, I moved to the Medical College of Wisconsin, where I served as Chief of Surgical Oncology and the Vice Chair for Clinical Operations. During this time, I also obtained an MBA at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. I was thrilled to join the Department of Surgery earlier this year due largely to People, Programs, and amazing Potential that exist at the University of Utah and the Huntsman Cancer Institute. Under the leadership of Dr. Fiemu Nwariaku, the Department of Surgery’s future is certainly bright with his plans in place.
Our division is divided into 5 sections and is growing in scope and size. We see consistent growth of our academic mission as measured by presentations, publications, grant funding, fellowship expansions, and national reputation. While a great deal of our clinical work is focused on the Huntsman campus, we continue to be engaged with the Department of Surgery and partnered with the division of General Surgery. Within our division of 17 surgeons, we have three Vice Chairs serving the department in leadership. We continue to be engaged in the training of general surgery residents, with Dr. Devi Krishnamurty recently announced as the new Program Director for the residency.
We are thrilled to welcome three additional new faculty members to our group. Drs. James Sun, Brian Cain, and Devi Krishnamurty have joined our team recently. Our growth is due to anticipated clinical and systemwide expansion. For example, we are thrilled to consider the opportunities of growth via telehealth. Many of our surgeons have secured 5-6 state licenses to facilitate expanding our clinical footprint. Our mission of growing the clinical enterprise across the Mountain West and beyond is novel and exciting.
The initiation of the Vineyard’s second Huntsman campus and the West Jordan hospital are wonderful initiatives that will serve our immediate community. We are planning and anticipating our presence on these two campuses and the ability to provide the right care and right location.
We are also grateful to Dr. Laura Lambert for her last seven years of service here at Utah. Dr. Lambert has built a world-class peritoneal surface malignancy (PSM) program. She has also touched the lives of many of our trainees as a program director of the general surgery training program. As she moves closer to family on the East Coast, we have seen national attention regarding the leadership role of our PSM program, which is a credit to Dr. Lambert and our culture.
We are planning a strategic division retreat in January and a national continuing medical education event next year in the Park City area. I am so pleased to join the faculty and lead this group as we nurture “The Utah Way”. Please consider yourself personally invited to visit us on campus anytime. We would love to hear from you.
Sincerely,
T. Clark Gamblin, MD, MS, MBA, FACS
Professor and Chief of Surgical Oncology
Beckstrand Presidential Endowed Chair
Department of Surgery
University of Utah and Huntsman Cancer Institute
clark.gamblin@hci.utah.edu