Dr. Benjamin Philosophe is the surgical director of the Johns Hopkins Comprehensive Transplant Center. He also serves as the lead transplant surgeon at Sibley Memorial Hospital’s Hepatology Multidisciplinary Center. Dr. Philosophe was the first physician to perform robotic total right and total left hepatic resections in the state of Maryland. He has expanded the application of minimally invasive surgical approaches to other hepatobiliary diseases and has improved outcomes and reduced effects of surgery on these patients. Dr. Philosophe practices out of The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Md., as well as Johns Hopkins Community Physician locations in Bethesda, Md. and Lutherville, Md. He is also affiliated with Suburban Hospital and Johns Hopkins Howard County Medical Center. Dr. Philosophe has a wide range of expertise, including cirrhosis; hepatic surgery, hepatitis, hepatobiliary conditions and surgeries; biliary tract surgery and hepatopancreatobiliary surgery; laparoscopic surgeries; vascular surgery; and robotic surgeries. He also has an expertise in various kinds of transplant surgeries, such as kidney, live donor liver, liver and pancreas, as well as various kinds of cancer, such as bile duct, gallbladder, hepatocellular, liver and pancreatic. Dr. Philosophe earned his medical degree from Boston University School of Medicine. He completed a residency in general surgery at Barnes-Jewish Hospital, followed by a liver transplantation fellowship at the University of Toronto. Dr. Philosophe also completed a transplant surgery fellowship at the University of Maryland, where he went on to work as a professor of surgery and the head of liver transplantation and hepatobiliary surgery. Dr. Philosophe is a member of the American Board of Surgery, the Clinical Robotic Surgery Association, the American Society of Transplant Surgeons, the Transplantation Society and the International Liver Transplantation Society. He has earned a Super Doctors Award in general surgery from the Washington Post Magazine, as well as a Top Doctor Award for hepatobiliary surgery and transplant specialists from Baltimore Magazine. Dr. Philosophe has also been repeatedly named one of America’s Top Doctors and one of America’s Top Doctors for Cancer by Castle Connolly. Dr. Philosophe has contributed to numerous publications and presentations. His research interests include uncovering the mechanisms that contribute to transplant rejection and determining characteristics that can be used to better predict donor organ function. He has completed pioneering work in developing a scoring system called the Maryland Aggregate Pathology Index (MAPI), which is used by transplant surgeons worldwide to assess the likelihood of a deceased donor’s kidney function after transplantation. MAPI has increased the utilization of donor kidneys and saved many lives. Dr. Philosophe is rated as a Distinguished provider by MediFind in the treatment of Liver Failure. His top areas of expertise are Hepatitis, Liver Failure, End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD), Liver Transplant, and Kidney Transplant.

Dr. Cameron is the director of the Johns Hopkins Department of Surgery and surgeon-in-chief of The Johns Hopkins Hospital. Dr. Cameron was born at Johns Hopkins and raised in Baltimore. He attended Harvard College and returned to Johns Hopkins where he obtained his M.D.. and Ph.D. degrees. His surgical training was spent at the Massachusetts General Hospital and then at UCLA for Liver Transplantation. He returned to Hopkins as Head of the Liver Transplant Program in 2006. His laboratory studies stem cells and the liver to promote drug-free transplantation and other pursuits include the use of social media to increase organ donation. He is married to Lisa, a lawyer, and has two children, Charlotte and John. Dr. Cameron is rated as a Distinguished provider by MediFind in the treatment of Liver Failure. His top areas of expertise are Hepatitis, Liver Failure, Alcoholic Cirrhosis, Liver Transplant, and Pancreaticoduodenectomy.

Paul Thuluvath is a Gastroenterologist in Lutherville, Maryland. Dr. Thuluvath is rated as an Elite provider by MediFind in the treatment of Liver Failure. His top areas of expertise are Liver Failure, Hepatitis, Hepatitis C, Liver Transplant, and Endoscopy.

Dr. Gurakar joined Johns Hopkins from the Nazih Zuhdi Transplantation Institute at the Integris Baptist Medical Center in Oklahoma City, where he was the chief of Hepatology Research and the program director of the Liver Transplantation Medicine/ Hepatology Fellowship. He served at various capacities in the Liver Medicine Section, since its first establishment in 1993. Dr. Gurakar's clinical interests include pre and post-transplant, clinical and endoscopic management of liver diseases and viral hepatitis. His research interests include bioartificial liver dialysis systems and application of total plasma exchange in the treatment of liver disorders. Dr. Gurakar is rated as a Distinguished provider by MediFind in the treatment of Liver Failure. His top areas of expertise are Hepatitis, Liver Failure, Alcoholic Cirrhosis, Liver Transplant, and Kidney Transplant.

Dr. Russell Wesson is the Surgical Director of Kidney Transplantation and a liver and kidney transplant surgeon at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. His areas of clinical expertise include Liver, Kidney and Pancreas Transplantation, Hepatobiliary surgery, Living Liver and Kidney donation and Transplantation for Colorectal Metastasis. Dr. Wesson completed his General Surgery Residency in 2016 at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. He was an intern at Johns Hopkins in 2009 after receiving his medical degree from the University of Cape Town, South Africa. After his residency, Dr. Wesson completed the American Society of Transplant Surgery accredited Fellowship in Abdominal Transplant and Hepatobiliary Surgery at Johns Hopkins. He continued on faculty within the division of transplant surgery. Dr. Wesson's academic and research focuses on basic and translational research within the context of liver and kidney transplantation and organ injury. He is active as a principle investigator on multiple clinical trials investigating novel immunosuppressive agents. He is a member of the American Society of Transplant Surgery as well as the American Transplantation Society. Dr. Wesson is rated as an Advanced provider by MediFind in the treatment of Liver Failure. His top areas of expertise are Liver Failure, Chronic Antibody-Mediated Rejection, Hepatitis, Liver Transplant, and Kidney Transplant.

Dr. Ma is an assistant professor of medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She received her medical degree from the University of Michigan Medical School and completed her internal medicine residency at the University of Pennsylvania. Following her residency, she performed a fellowship in transplant hepatology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Dr. Ma specializes in liver disorders including alcoholic liver disease, viral hepatitis, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, metabolic liver disorders, as well as the care of patients after liver transplant. Dr. Ma also has interests in medical education and currently serves as the Associate Program Director of the Gastroenterology Fellowship. Dr. Ma is rated as an Experienced provider by MediFind in the treatment of Liver Failure. Her top areas of expertise are Hepatitis, Cirrhosis, Hepatitis C, Endoscopy, and Gastrectomy.

Dr. Robert Liddell is an Assistant Professor of Radiology and Surgery and Division Chief of Interventional Radiology at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. His specialty is interventional radiology, with an expertise in interventional oncology and vascular and interventional radiology. Dr. Liddell received his MBBCh at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. He completed his residency at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Diagnostic Radiology and his fellowship in Interventional Radiology. Videos Interventional Radiology. Dr. Liddell is rated as an Experienced provider by MediFind in the treatment of Liver Failure. His top areas of expertise are Bile Duct Obstruction, Ascites, Fibrolamellar Carcinoma, Liver Embolization, and Pancreaticoduodenectomy.

Dr. Jill A. Fahrner is an assistant professor in the Departments of Genetic Medicine and Pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Her area of clinical expertise is medical genetics. Dr. Fahrner earned her Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University and her M.D. from the University of North Carolina. She completed pediatrics residency training at Duke University Medical Center. She joined the McKusick-Nathans Institute of Genetic Medicine as a genetic medicine resident in 2009 and completed her training in 2012. She stayed on as chief resident from 2012-2013 and then joined the faculty as an assistant professor in the Department of Pediatrics within the McKusick-Nathans Institute of Genetic Medicine in 2013. Her current primary appointment is Assistant Professor in the Department of Genetic Medicine, where she is Director of the multidisciplinary Epigenetics and Chromatin Clinic. She is a physician-scientist with a long-standing interest in epigenetic mechanisms of disease. Her clinical focus is on caring for individuals with epigenetic and chromatin disorders, specifically Mendelian disorders of the epigenetic machinery, or chromatin modifying disorders. She has seen hundreds of individuals with congenital disorders involving disrupted epigenetics, most of which exhibit neurodevelopmental disabilities and abnormal growth. Her laboratory research is focused on understanding disease mechanisms and developing therapies for select Mendelian disorders of the epigenetic machinery. She is a member of the American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG), having won an ASHG Reviewer’s Choice Abstract Award for her work on growth retardation in Kabuki syndrome 1. She has received a Johns Hopkins School of Medicine Clinician Scientist Award, a Johns Hopkins School of Medicine Musculoskeletal Pilot and Feasibility Award, a William and Ella Owens Medical Research Foundation Award, the Margaret Ellen Nielsen Fellowship Award, and the Alice and YT Chen Travel Award while at Johns Hopkins. She is the recipient of a prestigious Hartwell Foundation Individual Biomedical Research Award and also has ongoing research funding from the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Fahrner is rated as an Experienced provider by MediFind in the treatment of Liver Failure. Her top areas of expertise are Weaver Syndrome, Sotos Syndrome, Kabuki Syndrome, and Marshall-Smith Syndrome.

Chandra Bhati is a Transplant Surgeon and a General Surgeon in Baltimore, Maryland. Dr. Bhati is rated as a Distinguished provider by MediFind in the treatment of Liver Failure. His top areas of expertise are Liver Failure, Chronic Antibody-Mediated Rejection, Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease, Liver Transplant, and Kidney Transplant. Dr. Bhati is currently accepting new patients.

Dr. Nicole Rizkalla is an assistant professor of anesthesiology and critical care medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Her area of clinical expertise is critical care medicine. She earned her M.D. from the University of Vermont College of Medicine. She completed a residency in pediatrics at the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles and a residency in anesthesiology and critical care medicine at Johns Hopkins. She performed a fellowship in pediatric critical care medicine at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Dr. Rizkalla is rated as an Experienced provider by MediFind in the treatment of Liver Failure. Her top areas of expertise are Liver Failure, Acute Pain, and End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD).

Dr. Chloe Thio is a professor of medicine and an associate professor of molecular microbiology and immunology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Her areas of clinical expertise include hepatitis, HIV/AIDS and infectious disease. Dr. Thio received her B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania. She earned her M.D. from the Yale University School of Medicine. She completed her residency at Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and her fellowship in infectious diseases at Johns Hopkins. Her research interests include chronic hepatitis B and C and coinfection of viral hepatitis with HIV/AIDS. She has developed a program centered around virology and immunology translational work towards an HBV cure. Dr. Thio is a member of the American College of Physicians, the American Association for the Study of Liver Disease, the American Society of Clinical Investigation, HIVMA and the Infectious Diseases Society of America. Dr. Thio is rated as an Experienced provider by MediFind in the treatment of Liver Failure. Her top areas of expertise are Hepatitis, Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.

Glenn Whitman, M.D., joined the Johns Hopkins Division of Cardiac Surgery in 2009 as associate professor of surgery. His training began at the University of Pennsylvania, where he was a resident in surgery from 1979 to 1984. He then finished his general surgery training and then completed his training as a cardiothoracic surgeon at the University of Colorado. Thereafter, Dr. Whitman became an assistant professor at the University of Colorado and chief of cardiothoracic surgery at the Denver Veteran’s Administration Hospital, where he remained for two years. In 1990, he returned to his home city of Philadelphia, where he became chief of cardiac surgery at the Medical College of Pennsylvania, formerly Women’s Medical College, the first medical school in the United States to accept women. Dr. Whitman remained there for eight years before moving to the University of Maryland as chief of cardiac surgery. He has served as the director of transplantation and United Network for Organ Sharing representative at Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia, as well as its director of perioperative services, managing preadmission testing, the operating room, and the post-anesthesia care unit. In 2007, he left Temple for Thomas Jefferson Hospital, taking over the responsibilities of running the cardiac surgery intensive care unit. In summer 2009, he was returned to Baltimore to run the cardiac surgery intensive care unit and oversee the performance improvement/quality assurance program for cardiac surgery at Johns Hopkins. Dr. Whitman’s initial research interests were in cardiac ischemia-reperfusion injury and P31 nuclear magnetic resonance of cardiac bioenergetics, for which he received both National Institutes of Health and Department of Veterans Affairs funding. He has since become involved with quality outcome, and has presented at the American College of Surgeons and the Society of Thoracic Surgeons on the difficulties associated with performance improvement and quality assurance in the field of health care, particularly in the ICU. This past year, Dr. Whitman has stepped down from his role as the Chair of the Society of Thoracic Surgery Workforce on Critical Care, a role he had held since 2014. He continues to participate in the content of the Annual Meetings for the Society of Thoracic Surgery, The American Association of Thoracic Surgery, and The STS Fall Critical Care meetings as the Programmatic Co-Chair for Perioperative Care. This past year he has participated in two major consensus statements on postcardiotomy shock (see below) and low ejection fraction CABG patients (awaiting review). 2020 EACTS/ELSO/STS/AATS ExpertConsensus on Post-CardiotomyExtracorporeal Life Support in Adult Patients Ann Thorac Surg 2012;111:327-69. Dr. Whitman is rated as an Experienced provider by MediFind in the treatment of Liver Failure. His top areas of expertise are Cardiogenic Shock, Compartment Syndrome, Restrictive Cardiomyopathy (RCM), Heart Bypass Surgery, and Heart Transplant.

Dr. Homeira Zahiri is a Clinical Associate in the Johns Hopkins Medicine Department of Radiology and Radiological Science. She received her medical degree from Islamic Azad University - Tehran Branch. She performed residencies at Tehran University of Medical Sciences in pathology, University of Nebraska Medical Center in nuclear medicine and Creighton University School of Medicine in radiology. Dr. Zahiri completed a body imaging fellowship at Johns Hopkins Medicine. Dr. Zahiri is rated as an Experienced provider by MediFind in the treatment of Liver Failure. Her top areas of expertise are Pleurisy, Pleural Effusion, ALK-Positive Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer, and Visceromegaly.

Dr. Amit K. Pahwa is an associate professor of medicine and pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Dr. Pahwa holds many educational leadership roles including, director of the internal medicine sub-internship rotation at the Johns Hopkins Hospital the School of Medicine, associate director of the Core Clerkship in Pediatrics, and co-director of the Health System Science Core Theme. He earned his M.D. at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine and he completed his residency at Indiana University School of Medicine. He is nationally known for his work in high-value care both in education and quality improvement. For his educational work, he has not only published several papers but received many awards for this work including, Berkheimer Faculty Education Scholar Grant, CDIM Early Career Medical Student Educator Award, CDIM Louis N. Pangaro Educational Program Development Award, HVPAA educational excellence award, JHU Alumni Association Excellence in Teaching, IEE Educational Scholarship Award, and CDIM Charles H. Griffith Educational Research Award. Dr. Pahwa is rated as an Experienced provider by MediFind in the treatment of Liver Failure. His top areas of expertise are Asymptomatic Bacteriuria, Magnesium Deficiency, Urinary Tract Infection (UTI), Gastrointestinal Bleeding, and Pancreatectomy.

Dr. Wikrom Karnsakul is an associate professor of pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. His clinical interests are in the care of pediatric liver diseases, and general gastrointestinal diseases. Dr. Karnsakul received his medical degree in 1992 from Faculty of Medicine, Siriraj Medical Center, Mahidol University School of Medicine in Bangkok, Thailand. He completed his residency in pediatrics at Advocate Hope Children's Hospital in 1998 and did a fellowship in pediatric gastroenterology, hepatology and nutrition at Texas Children's Hospital, Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. He completed his postdoctoral research training at USDA/ARS Children's Nutrition Research Center, Baylor College of Medicine. He joined the faculty at Johns Hopkins in 2008. His research interests center on the understanding and treatment of chronic liver disease, ascites, cholestasis, viral hepatitis especially hepatitis C and hepatitis E, and Cystic Fibrosis Related Liver Disease. Dr. Karnsakul is also involved in NIH-funded multicenter research studies including the Cholestatic Liver Disease Consortium and Cystic Fibrosis Related Liver Disease Project. Dr. Karnsakul is currently a Fellow of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (FAASLD). Dr. Karnsakul is rated as an Experienced provider by MediFind in the treatment of Liver Failure. His top areas of expertise are Alagille Syndrome, Cholestasis, Hepatitis E, Liver Transplant, and Endoscopy.

Dr. Richard Moore is recognized for mentorship of medical students, residents, fellows, and junior faculty in HIV/AIDS Research. Winner of the David M. Levine Mentorship Awards in the General Internal Medicine Department, he is an expert in pharmacoepidemiology, clinical epidemiology, and health services research. Now serving as the Director of the Moore Clinic for HIV Care, which began in 1984, he has influenced the careers of young scholars not only in General Internal Medicine, but also in the Infectious Disease Division. His colleagues and mentees praise him for his accessibility, his patience, his scientific candor, his instinct for compelling research, his insight, and his abilities as a teacher and editor. Dr. Moore has authored 129 original manuscripts, 24 chapters, reviews and letters. For his medical degree he attended Vanderbilt University School of Medicine where he also completed his Internship and Residency in the Department of Medicine. A fellowship, completed at Johns Hopkins University, Department of Medicine, Division of Internal Medicine, was followed by a Masters of Health Sciences at the Johns Hopkins University, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Department of Epidemiology. Dr. Moore is rated as an Experienced provider by MediFind in the treatment of Liver Failure. His top areas of expertise are HIV/AIDS, Sepsis, Hepatitis C, Hepatitis, and Gastrostomy.

Elizabeth King is a general surgeon with a specialty in abdominal transplant, live donor surgery, and hepatopancreatobiliary surgery. She is part of the Johns Hopkins Comprehensive Transplant Center. Dr. King is the surgical director of pediatric transplant and has a focus on liver, kidney, pancreas transplant in both children and adults. Dr. King earned her medical degree from University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine and completed her residency at The Johns Hopkins Hospital. Her fellowship in abdominal organ transplant was also completed at Johns Hopkins. In addition to her clinical experience, Dr. King obtained a Ph.D. in clinical investigations from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and is published in the fields of transplant outcomes, live organ donation, and pediatric transplant. She is interested in improving health care engagement among both adult and pediatric transplant recipients. Dr. King is rated as an Experienced provider by MediFind in the treatment of Liver Failure. Her top areas of expertise are Liver Failure, Chronic Antibody-Mediated Rejection, End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD), Liver Transplant, and Simultaneous Pancreas Kidney Transplant.

Dr. Gregory Kirk is a professor of medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He holds joint appointments in oncology and, at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, in epidemiology. His areas of clinical expertise include epidemiology, hepatitis, HIV, AIDS and infectious diseases. He serves as the vice chair for clinical and translational research at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Dr. Kirk received his undergraduate degree from Oklahoma State University. He earned a Ph.D. and M.P.H. from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He earned his M.D. from the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center College of Medicine. He completed a residency in preventative medicine at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and in internal medicine at Georgetown University. He performed a fellowship in infectious diseases at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. His research focuses on understanding and preventing the long-term consequences of chronic HIV infection, particularly the malignant complications of HIV and viral hepatitis. He has extensive research and clinical experience in Africa, leading the Gambia Liver Cancer Study, one of the largest studies of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) performed in the continent, in addition to years of collaborative research in Uganda. Dr. Kirk pioneered the use of elastography and application of novel aflatoxin-associated biomarkers of HCC risk to be applied in Consortium projects. He has strong, multidisciplinary team leadership skills as principal investigator of the ALIVE cohort and several other collaborative studies in Baltimore. Dr. Kirk is rated as an Experienced provider by MediFind in the treatment of Liver Failure. His top areas of expertise are HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis C, Hepatitis, and Hepatitis B.

Dr. Buescher is a pulmonary critical care physician. He has been deeply involved in clinical teaching of both medical students, interns, residents and fellows throughout his career. He is the director of the Medical/Surgical Critical Care Units at MedStar Union Memorial Hospital as well as MedStar Good Samaritan Hospital. He is president of a large community private practice pulmonary and critical group (Pulmonary and Critical Care Associates of Baltimore) He serves at Hopkins on the part-time clinical faculty. Research Summary Dr. Buescher is involved in multiple clinical research projects. Dr. Buescher is rated as an Experienced provider by MediFind in the treatment of Liver Failure. His top areas of expertise are Sarcoidosis, Neurosarcoidosis, Lung Metastases, Endoscopy, and Gastrostomy.

Dr. Fizza Naqvi is an assistant professor of medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Her areas of clinical expertise include nephrology, kidney and pancreas transplant. Dr. Naqvi received her medical degree from the Aga Khan Medical College in Karachi, Pakistan. She performed a fellowship in nephrology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She completed training in transplant nephrology at Johns Hopkins. Dr. Naqvi speaks English and Urdu. Dr. Naqvi is rated as an Experienced provider by MediFind in the treatment of Liver Failure. Her top areas of expertise are End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD), Chronic Kidney Disease, Acute Kidney Failure, Cytomegalic Inclusion Disease, and Kidney Transplant.