The 20 Best Liver Transplant Doctors near Bethesda, MD

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. He is also highly rated in 10 other conditions, according to our data. His clinical expertise encompasses Hepatitis, Liver Failure, Alcoholic Cirrhosis, Liver Transplant, and Pancreaticoduodenectomy. Dr. Cameron is board certified in American Board Of Surgery.

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. He is also highly rated in 13 other conditions, according to our data. His clinical expertise encompasses Hepatitis, End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD), Liver Failure, Liver Transplant, and Kidney Transplant. Dr. Philosophe is board certified in American Board Of Surgery.

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. He is also highly rated in 15 other conditions, according to our data. His clinical expertise encompasses Hepatitis, Liver Failure, Alcoholic Cirrhosis, Liver Transplant, and Kidney Transplant. Dr. Gurakar is board certified in American Board Of Internal Medicine.

Dorry Segev is a General Surgeon practicing medicine in Baltimore, Maryland. Dr. Segev is rated as an Elite provider by MediFind in Liver Transplant. He is also highly rated in 14 other conditions, according to our data. His clinical expertise encompasses End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD), Liver Failure, Hyperparathyroidism, Kidney Transplant, and Liver Transplant.

Chandra Bhati is a General Surgeon practicing medicine in Baltimore, Maryland. Dr. Bhati is rated as an Elite provider by MediFind in Liver Transplant. He is also highly rated in 23 other conditions, according to our data. His clinical expertise encompasses Liver Failure, Chronic Antibody-Mediated Rejection, Fibrolamellar Carcinoma, Liver Transplant, and Kidney Transplant.

Dr Daniel is a General Surgeon practicing medicine in Baltimore, Maryland. Dr. Daniel is rated as an Elite provider by MediFind in Liver Transplant. He is also highly rated in 11 other conditions, according to our data. His clinical expertise encompasses Hepatic Ischemia, Hepatitis C, Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease, Liver Transplant, and Kidney 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. She is also highly rated in 1 other condition, according to our data. Her clinical expertise encompasses Hepatitis C, Hepatitis, Liver Failure, Liver Transplant, and Endoscopy. Dr. Strauss is board certified in American Board Of Internal Medicine.

Dr. Po-Hung (Victor) Chen is a transplant hepatology and addiction medicine physician. He is jointly appointed by the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology and the Division of Addiction Medicine. Dr. Chen's clinical focus is to care for patients with general or transplant-related liver conditions, including alcohol-associated liver disease (ALD), metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD), viral hepatitis, autoimmune liver diseases, hemochromatosis, and other diagnoses. He directed the creation of a Johns Hopkins Medicine informational webpage on ALD. He is also a frequent consultant for other Johns Hopkins clinicians regarding inquiries about ALD, including biomarker interpretation, acute hepatitis management, and addiction treatment delivery. Dr. Chen is a member of multiple professional medical and public health organizations (see below). He is a Fellow of the American College of Gastroenterology and a Fellow of the American Society of Addiction Medicine. Dr. Chen is rated as an Advanced provider by MediFind in Liver Transplant. He is also highly rated in 5 other conditions, according to our data. His clinical expertise encompasses Hepatitis, Cirrhosis, Hepatitis C, Liver Transplant, and Endoscopy. Dr. Chen is board certified in American Board Of Preventive Medicine and American Board Of Internal Medicine.

Saleh Alqahtani is a Gastroenterologist practicing medicine in Baltimore, Maryland. Dr. Alqahtani is rated as a Distinguished provider by MediFind in Liver Transplant. He is also highly rated in 13 other conditions, according to our data. His clinical expertise encompasses Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease, Obesity, Hepatitis, Liver Transplant, and Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Surgery.

Dr Paul is a Transplant Surgeon practicing medicine in Baltimore, Maryland. Dr. Paul is rated as a Distinguished provider by MediFind in Liver Transplant. He is also highly rated in 32 other conditions, according to our data. His clinical expertise encompasses Liver Failure, Hepatitis, Hepatitis C, Liver Transplant, and Endoscopy.

Dr Raphael is a Transplant Surgeon practicing medicine in Baltimore, Maryland. Dr. Raphael is rated as a Distinguished provider by MediFind in Liver Transplant. He is also highly rated in 7 other conditions, according to our data. His clinical expertise encompasses Liver Failure, Alcoholic Cirrhosis, Rhizarthrosis, Liver Transplant, and Kidney Transplant.

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. She is also highly rated in 2 other conditions, according to our data. Her clinical expertise encompasses Acute Pancreatitis, Hereditary Pancreatitis, Chronic Pancreatitis, Liver Transplant, and Aneurysm Repair. Dr. Gurakar is board certified in American Board Of Internal Medicine.

Tokunbo Ajayi is a Hospital Medicine provider practicing medicine in Columbia, Maryland. Dr. Ajayi is rated as an Experienced provider by MediFind in Liver Transplant. He is also highly rated in 1 other condition, according to our data. His clinical expertise encompasses Boils, Alcoholic Cirrhosis, Viral Gastroenteritis, Liver Transplant, and Gastrectomy. Dr. Ajayi is board certified in American Board Of Internal Medicine.

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. He is also highly rated in 10 other conditions, according to our data. His clinical expertise encompasses Alagille Syndrome, Cholestasis, Hepatitis E, Liver Transplant, and Endoscopy. Dr. Karnsakul is board certified in American Board Of Pediatrics.

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 clinical expertise encompasses Liver Failure, Chronic Antibody-Mediated Rejection, End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD), Liver Transplant, and Simultaneous Pancreas Kidney Transplant. Dr. King is board certified in American Board Of Surgery.

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. She is also highly rated in 2 other conditions, according to our data. Her clinical expertise encompasses Carotid Artery Disease, Thoracic Outlet Syndrome, Peripheral Artery Disease, Kidney Transplant, and Nephrectomy. Dr. Holscher is board certified in American Board Of Surgery.

Hepatologist Bilal Khalid specializes in the care of patients with liver disease, including cirrhosis and liver transplantation. Dr. Khalid earned his medical degree from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, where he remained for his internal medicine residency and followed a medical education track. He completed a fellowship in gastroenterology and hepatology at the combined University of Maryland-National Institutes of Health Clinical Scholars Program and then an advanced fellowship in transplant hepatology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. His clinical interests include the treatment of patients with primary liver cancer such as hepatocellular carcinoma and cholangiocarcinoma. Dr. Khalid also focuses on medical education, including program and curriculum development. Dr. Khalid is rated as an Experienced provider by MediFind in Liver Transplant. His clinical expertise encompasses Eosinophilic Enteropathy, Gastritis, Liver Cancer, Portal Hypertension, and Liver Transplant. Dr. Khalid is board certified in American Board Of Internal Medicine.

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. He is also highly rated in 11 other conditions, according to our data. His clinical expertise encompasses Chronic Kidney Disease, Cytomegalovirus Infection, Cytomegalic Inclusion Disease, Kidney Transplant, and Pancreas Transplant. Dr. Brennan is board certified in American Board Of Internal Medicine.

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. He is also highly rated in 52 other conditions, according to our data. His clinical expertise encompasses Achalasia, Pancreatic Pseudocyst, Bile Duct Obstruction, Endoscopy, and Gastric Bypass. Dr. Khashab is board certified in American Board Of Internal Medicine.

Dr. Hamilton is an Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology. He is the Interim Director, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology and the Director of Hepatology for Johns Hopkins Medicine. His clinical specialties include Wilson Disease, Cystic Fibrosis related liver disease, liver transplantation, hepatocellular carcinoma, cirrhosis, portal hypertension, acute and chronic viral, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NASH), autoimmune, and cholestatic liver disease. His research interests include the copper homeostasis and its regulation of lipid metabolism and liver injury, the fundamental mechanisms regulating liver fibrosis, and the molecular genetics of hepatocellular carcinoma and early detection biomarkers. Dr. Hamilton is a 2005 recipient of the National Institutes of Health/ National Research Scholar Award for gastroenterology and hepatology. Dr. Hamilton is rated as an Advanced provider by MediFind in Liver Transplant. He is also highly rated in 15 other conditions, according to our data. His clinical expertise encompasses Hepatocerebral Degeneration, Hepatitis, Wilson Disease, Liver Transplant, and Endoscopy. Dr. Hamilton is board certified in American Board Of Internal Medicine.