The 20 Best Liver Transplant Doctors near Baltimore, MD

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 an Elite provider by MediFind in Liver Transplant. 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 an Elite provider by MediFind in Liver Transplant. His top areas of expertise are Hepatitis, Liver Failure, Alcoholic Cirrhosis, Liver Transplant, and Pancreaticoduodenectomy.

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 an Elite provider by MediFind in Liver Transplant. His top areas of expertise are Hepatitis, Liver Failure, Alcoholic Cirrhosis, Liver Transplant, and Kidney Transplant.

Chandra Bhati is a Transplant Surgeon and a General Surgeon in Baltimore, Maryland. Dr. Bhati is rated as an Elite provider by MediFind in Liver Transplant. 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.

Daniel Maluf is a Transplant Surgeon and a General Surgeon in Baltimore, Maryland. Dr. Maluf is rated as an Elite provider by MediFind in Liver Transplant. His top areas of expertise are Hepatic Ischemia, Hepatitis C, Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease, Liver Transplant, and Kidney Transplant. Dr. Maluf is currently accepting new patients.

Dorry Segev is a General Surgeon in Baltimore, Maryland. Dr. Segev is rated as an Elite provider by MediFind in Liver Transplant. His top areas of expertise are End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD), Liver Failure, Hyperparathyroidism, Kidney Transplant, and Liver Transplant.

Alexandra (Aly) Strauss is a transplant hepatologist who treats patients with acute and chronic liver disease, such as cirrhosis and liver cancer. Dr. Strauss completed medical school at the University of South Florida (USF), where she continued for internal medicine residency training and served as chief resident. She then went to The Johns Hopkins University for fellowship training in gastroenterology, followed by a fellowship in transplant hepatology. Her research training began when she completed a master’s degree in industrial/systems engineering at USF. Later, at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, she earned her Ph.D. in clinical investigation. Dr. Strauss’s research focus is on the use of systems engineering and data science to improve access to liver transplantation. She serves as core faculty in the Johns Hopkins University Malone Center for Engineering in Healthcare and is a faculty member in the Center for Data Science in Emergency Medicine. Recent News Articles and Media Coverage What Does AI Mean for GI, What does AI mean for GI? - American Gastroenterological Association (07/03/2023) Selected Publications Vong, Tyrus, Nicholas Rizer, Vedant Jain, Valerie L. Thompson, Mark Dredze, Eili Y. Klein, Jeremiah S. Hinson, et al. “Automated Identification of Incidental Hepatic Steatosis on Emergency Department Imaging Using Large Language Models.” Hepatology Communications 9, no. 3 (March 1, 2025). https://doi.org/10.1097/HC9.0000000000000638. Mankowski, Michal A., Sunjae Bae, Alexandra T. Strauss, Bonnie E. Lonze, Babak J. Orandi, Darren Stewart, Allan B. Massie, et al. “Generalizability of Kidney Transplant Data in Electronic Health Records - The Epic Cosmos Database vs the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients.” American Journal of Transplantation: Official Journal of the American Society of Transplantation and the American Society of Transplant Surgeons, November 15, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajt.2024.11.008. Xu, Jingzhi, Michal Mankowski, Karen B. Vanterpool, Alexandra T. Strauss, Bonnie E. Lonze, Babak J. Orandi, Darren Stewart, et al. “Trials and Tribulations: Responses of ChatGPT to Patient Questions about Kidney Transplantation.” Transplantation 109, no. 3 (March 1, 2025): 399–402. https://doi.org/10.1097/TP.0000000000005261. Strauss AT, Morgan C, El Khuri C, Slogeris B, Smith AG, Klein E, Toerper M, Peterson S, Gurses AP, DeAngelo A, Debraine, A, Levin S, Hinson J. Human-centered design and usability evaluation of LOOP, a patient outcomes-driven feedback platform for emergency medicine clinicians. JMIR Human Factors. 2022;9(1):e30130; *corresponding author. Strauss AT, Yeh J, Martinez D, Yanokyan G, Yoder J, Nehra R, Feller T, Bull-Henry K, Stein E, Hsu L, Al-Grain H, Zabko C, Fain C. A patient-centered framework for health systems engineering in gastroenterology: improving inpatient colonoscopy bowel preparation. BMC Gastroenterol. 2021;21(1):89;. Dr. Strauss is rated as a Distinguished provider by MediFind in Liver Transplant. Her top areas of expertise are Hepatitis, Hepatitis C, Alcoholic Cirrhosis, Liver Transplant, and Endoscopy.

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 Liver Transplant. His top areas of expertise are Liver Failure, Chronic Antibody-Mediated Rejection, Hepatitis, Liver Transplant, and Kidney Transplant.

Jin He, M.D., Ph.D., is a professor of surgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and is the Division Chief of Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary & Gastrointestinal Surgical Oncology. Dr. He specializes in diseases and tumors of the pancreas, liver, bile duct, and gallbladder. He performs open as well as minimally invasive (robotic and laparoscopic) surgery, including the Whipple procedure. Dr. He received his medical degree from Beijing Medical University and a Ph.D. in oncology from Fudan University Shanghai Medical College. He completed the Halsted general surgery residency training at Johns Hopkins, followed by an ACGME accredited fellowship in complex general surgical oncology at Johns Hopkins. Dr. He is the John Cameron Professor of Alimentary Tract Diseases. Dr. He’s research focuses on personalized treatment through stratifying pancreatic tumors on their genetic features. He holds several patents in anti-cancer vascular targeting agents and has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals and lectured internationally. He serves on several national committees, including the NCCN panel on neuroendocrine tumors and the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology. Dr. He is rated as an Experienced provider by MediFind in Liver Transplant. His top areas of expertise are Pancreatic Cancer, Neuroendocrine Tumor, Cholangiocarcinoma (Bile Duct Cancer), Pancreatectomy, and Pancreaticoduodenectomy.

Daniel C. Brennan, M.D., joins the Johns Hopkins Division of Renal Medicine as professor of nephrology and medical director of the Comprehensive Transplant Center. Dr. Brennan’s areas of clinical expertise include transplant nephrology and renal disease. Prior to joining Johns Hopkins, Dr. Brennan was the Alan A. and Edith L. Wolff Professor of renal Diseases at Washington University and the Director of Transplant Nephrology at the Washington University School of Medicine. He received his undergraduate degree from Cornell College and earned his medical degree at the University of Iowa, where he completed a residency in internal medicine. He then completed research and clinical nephrology fellowships at Brigham & Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School. Dr. Brennan holds professional memberships at various organizations, including the American College of Physicians, the International Society of Nephrology, the American Society of Nephrology, The Transplantation Society, the American Society of Transplant Physicians and the American Society of Clinical Investigation. Dr. Brennan is rated as an Experienced provider by MediFind in Liver Transplant. His top areas of expertise are Chronic Kidney Disease, Cytomegalovirus Infection, Cytomegalic Inclusion Disease, Kidney Transplant, and Pancreas Transplant.

Raphael Meier is a Transplant Surgeon and a General Surgeon in Baltimore, Maryland. Dr. Meier is rated as a Distinguished provider by MediFind in Liver Transplant. His top areas of expertise are Liver Failure, Alcoholic Cirrhosis, Rhizarthrosis, Liver Transplant, and Kidney Transplant. Dr. Meier is currently accepting new patients.

Dr. Tinney recently completed his abdominal transplant fellowship (with certificate in hepatopancreatobiliary surgery) with us and we are excited for him to join our transplant team as an Associate Professor! Dr. Tinney earned his B.A. from Princeton University and his medical degree from Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit. He then completed his surgical residency at Henry Ford Hospital before matriculating to Johns Hopkins for his fellowship training. His clinical focus is in kidney transplantation, including both deceased donor and live donor kidney transplants, and he will be working to expand the available kidney recipient list through direct involvement at the recipient evaluation stage. He also has a research focus on the implementation of robot-assisted kidney transplantation as a viable alternative to traditional open surgical techniques. He has several publications and oral/poster presentations on this topic, including at national and international professional meetings. He is a member of the American College of Surgeons and the American Society of Transplant Surgeons and has completed humanitarian missions to Haiti in the past. Dr. Tinney is rated as an Experienced provider by MediFind in Liver Transplant. His top areas of expertise are Kidney Transplant and Thrombectomy.

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 Liver Transplant. His top areas of expertise are Alagille Syndrome, Cholestasis, Hepatitis E, Liver Transplant, and Endoscopy.

Dr. Kenneth Ng is an Associate Professor of Clinical Pediatrics and the Director of Endoscopy in the Division of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. His professional interests include therapeutic endoscopy, endoscopic innovations, pancreatic diseases, biliary diseases, and esophageal disorders. Dr. Ng received his medical degree from the Rowan University School of Osteopathic Medicine. He completed his pediatric residency at Cohen Children's Medical Center and did his fellowship in pediatric gastroenterology at Baylor College of Medicine. After fellowship, he was an Assistant Professor in the Division of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition at Baylor College of Medicine, practicing at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, Texas. He joined Johns Hopkins Children’s Center in 2017. Dr. Ng has received awards for his research and clinical work, including the American Liver Foundation Postdoctoral Research Fellowship Award and the Dr. George Ferry Outstanding GI Faculty Award from Texas Children’s Hospital. Dr. Ng is rated as an Experienced provider by MediFind in Liver Transplant. His top areas of expertise are Childhood Pancreatitis, Chronic Pancreatitis, Hepatoblastoma, Endoscopy, 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 Liver Transplant. Her top areas of expertise are Liver Failure, Chronic Antibody-Mediated Rejection, End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD), Liver Transplant, and Simultaneous Pancreas Kidney Transplant.

Gastroenterologist Mouen Khashab specializes in therapeutic endoscopy, and he oversees this group of practitioners across the Johns Hopkins enterprise. Nationally and internationally known in the field of interventional endoscopy, Dr. Khashab has contributed immensely to the field’s advancement as a minimally invasive means to treat gastrointestinal and pancreaticobiliary disorders. Dr. Khashab earned his medical degree from the American University of Beirut Faculty of Medicine, and subsequently completed a residency in internal medicine and a fellowship in gastroenterology at Indiana University. He then completed a two-year fellowship at The Johns Hopkins Hospital before joining the faculty in 2011. A busy researcher, Dr. Khashab has published more than 600 papers in peer-reviewed journals. In 2013, he described the procedure called gastric peroral endoscopic myotomy (known as G-POEM) and was able to disseminate and teach it all over the world. Other procedures that he expanded include peroral endoscopic myotomy (POEM), peroral endoscopic myotomy with fundoplication (POEM-F), Zenker’s peroral endoscopic myotomy (Z-POEM) and full thickness resection. In 2022, he received the Master Endoscopist Award from the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ASGE) for his numerous contributions to the field. His procedural expertise includes endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP), endoscopic ultrasound (EUS), interventional EUS, submucosal endoscopy, POEM/achalasia, endoscopic mucosal resection, endoscopic submucosal dissection, luminal stenting, large polyp resection and Barrett’s therapy, among others. Dr. Khashab is involved with multiple gastrointestinal societies and has served on many committees, including the ASGE Standards of Practice Committee, which is in charge of formulating guidelines for the practice of endoscopy. He has also served as an associate editor for the journal Endoscopy, a premier journal in the field. Khashab is a highly sought-after speaker at national and international conferences, and he has participated in multiple live endoscopy conferences. Outside of academic medicine, Dr. Khashab is an entrepreneur. His major interest is in new technology and medical devices, and his goal is to disrupt the field by introducing technology that makes endoscopic procedures safer, easier, efficient and more scalable. Dr. Khashab is rated as an Experienced provider by MediFind in Liver Transplant. His top areas of expertise are Achalasia, Pancreatic Pseudocyst, Bile Duct Obstruction, Endoscopy, and Gastric Bypass.

Saleh Alqahtani is a Gastroenterologist in Baltimore, Maryland. Dr. Alqahtani is rated as a Distinguished provider by MediFind in Liver Transplant. His top areas of expertise are Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease, Obesity, Hepatitis, Liver Transplant, and Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Surgery.

Hepatologist Merve Gurakar specializes in liver disease, and treats patients who have portal hypertension. Dr. Gurakar earned her medical degree from Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine and completed internal medicine residency training at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She remained at Johns Hopkins for fellowship training in gastroenterology and transplant hepatology. Her research interests include portal hypertension, endo-hepatology and global health. Dr. Gurakar is rated as an Advanced provider by MediFind in Liver Transplant. Her top areas of expertise are Acute Pancreatitis, Hereditary Pancreatitis, Pancreas Divisum, Liver Transplant, and Aneurysm Repair.

Courtenay Holscher, M.D., Ph.D. is a vascular surgeon in Baltimore, MD at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, and an Assistant Professor of Surgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Dr. Holscher performs all vascular and endovascular surgical procedures, but has a special interest in limb preservation and peripheral arterial disease and taking a patient-centered approach to treatment and management. Dr. Holscher earned her medical degree at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. She completed a residency in general surgery followed by a fellowship in vascular surgery and endovascular therapy at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. During her general surgery residency, Dr. Holscher received a Ph.D. in Clinical Investigation from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Videos Meet Our Experts - Dr. Courtenay Holscher. Dr. Holscher is rated as an Experienced provider by MediFind in Liver Transplant. Her top areas of expertise are Carotid Artery Disease, Thoracic Outlet Syndrome, Peripheral Artery Disease, Kidney Transplant, and Nephrectomy.

Thomas Scalea is an Intensive Care Medicine provider in Baltimore, Maryland. Dr. Scalea is rated as an Experienced provider by MediFind in Liver Transplant. His top areas of expertise are Necrotizing Fasciitis, Delirium, Low Blood Pressure, Fasciotomy, and Splenectomy.