Michael T. Jaklitsch, MD
Jack Mitchell Distinguished Chair in Thoracic Surgery, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Director of Residency and Education, Division of Thoracic and Cardiac Surgery, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Professor of Surgery, Harvard Medical School
Dr. Jaklitsch is a professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School and a thoracic surgeon at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He is the inaugural incumbent of the Jack Mitchell Distinguished Chair in Thoracic Surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital where he also serves as director of Residency and Education in the Division of Thoracic and Cardiac Surgery.
A graduate of Tulane University, Dr. Jaklitsch received his medical degree from the University of Maryland School of Medicine. He completed a general surgery residency at the University of Alabama Birmingham, with two years of angiogenesis research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). He studied at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and ran clinical trials for the Division of Thoracic Surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital prior to completing a cardiothoracic surgery residency at the University of Minnesota.
Dr. Jaklitsch has been interested in the unique needs of elderly cancer patients since publishing his initial studies of the disproportionate benefit of minimally invasive surgery for frail individuals in the 1990s. He created a thoracic surgical clinic with embedded geriatricians at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. In this capacity, he has helped to mentor young researchers from both surgery and geriatric medicine. This clinic has also launched successful prospective trials in pre-operative evaluations, prehabilitation of surgical patients, minimally invasive techniques and postoperative care for older adults.
He currently serves as program director for the Cardiothoracic Residency Program at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the director of Clinical Research for the Division of Thoracic and Cardiac Surgery.
Dr. Jaklitsch was named co-chair of the American Association of Thoracic Surgery (AATS) Committee on Lung Cancer Screening and Surveillance where he successfully advocated to increase the age of lung cancer screening from 74 to 80 years. He is a member of the Surgical Task Force and the Science and Education Committee of the International Society of Geriatric Oncology. He is the recipient of numerous resident teaching and research awards; served as governor of the American College of Surgeons; and is past president of the Massachusetts Chapter of the American College of Surgeons (MCACS).