Category: News

Matthew A. Nehs, MD
Vice Chair for Faculty Development, Department of Surgery, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Co-Program Director, Harvard Combined Endocrine Surgery Fellowship
Associate Program Director, General Surgery Residency
Surgical Director, BWH Adrenal Center
Associate Professor of Surgery, Harvard Medical School

Dr. Nehs is an endocrine surgeon at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and an associate professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School.  He was born and raised in Traverse City, MI and graduated from Hope College.  He graduated from the University of Michigan Medical School in 2006 and then moved to Boston after matching at Brigham and Women’s Hospital for general surgery residency training.  In the middle of residency, he did a two-year lab fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital studying targeted therapy against the BRAF oncogene in anaplastic thyroid cancer.  He completed an endocrine surgery fellowship at the Brigham before joining the faculty in 2014.  

Dr. Nehs’ clinical and scientific interests converge at the intersection of where endocrine tumors, metabolic dysfunction, nutrition and lifestyle all interact.  He treats mostly disorders of the thyroid, parathyroid, and adrenal glands, and has an interest in the ways that these tumors promote downstream clinical sequelae like hypertension, insulin resistance, fatty liver, obesity and sleep disturbances. He has served as the co-program director of the Harvard Combined Endocrine Surgery Fellowship since its formation and integration in 2018, and he also serves as the associate program director for the General Surgery Residency at the Brigham.  In these roles, Dr. Nehs has prioritized resident and fellow mentorship and maturation to guide trainees in their path toward independent practice.  He helped form two multidisciplinary clinics for thyroid and adrenal disorders that have improved patient access, care coordination and interdepartmental collaboration.

In this new role, Dr. Nehs hopes to engage with our faculty in order to better understand how we can overcome the challenges inherent in practice building and academic productivity, all while balancing our responsibility to our families and loved ones. He hopes to build on our long history and tradition of clinical excellence, innovation, collegiality and mutual shared respect among our faculty at the Brigham.

Mass General Brigham continues an exciting and transformative journey to create the best academic health system in the world. After careful consideration and collaboration, it has been decided to integrate two of the finest divisions of Cardiac Surgery and Vascular and Endovascular Surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital into unified Mass General Brigham divisions. This decision was made with the utmost consideration for both institutions’ patients, trainees and research missions. By joining forces, the goal is to elevate the quality of care provided, enhance all training programs and further the groundbreaking research being done.

Matthew Eagleton, MD
Chief, Division of Vascular and Endovascular Surgery, MGB
Co-Director, Fireman Vascular Center
Robert R. Linton Professor of Surgery, Harvard Medical School

Dr. Eagleton is the Robert R. Linton Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School. Since his arrival at Massachusetts General Hospital in 2018 as chief of the Division of Vascular and Endovascular Surgery and co-director of the Fireman Vascular Center, he has built a collaborative and innovative multidisciplinary team that provides care to patients with vascular disease regionally, nationally and internationally. In addition, as co-director of the Mass General Thoracic Aortic Center, he has developed clinical, educational and research programs in collaboration with a multidisciplinary group of specialists focused on patients with aortic disease. Reflecting the high regard in which he is held by his peers, Dr. Eagleton has been selected as president elect of the Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS). He will transition to the role of president in the spring of 2024.

Dr. Eagleton received his medical degree in 1994 and completed his general surgery residency in 2000, both at the University of Rochester. In 2002, he completed specialty training in vascular surgery at the University of Michigan and obtained advanced training in endovascular procedures at the Cleveland Clinic. Prior to his current role at Mass General, Dr. Eagleton was professor of surgery at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University and served as vice chairman of the Department of Vascular Surgery and as director of Vascular Surgery at the Cleveland Clinic Aortic Center. In addition, he held the role of education program director, overseeing the training for the Cleveland Clinic Integrated Residency (0+5) and Independent Fellowship (5+2) training programs in vascular surgery, as well as their endovascular mini fellowship and aortic fellowship.

Dr. Eagleton conducts innovative clinical research applying fenestrated and branched aortic endograft technology to treat complex aortic disease through a physician-sponsored investigational device exemption trial, and his clinical practice follows suit. In addition, he has been involved in numerous endograft clinical trials serving as an investigator, national principal investigator and advisor. He collaborates with a team of physicians, both locally and internationally, to better understand how to provide safer, more durable treatment options to patients with life-threatening aortic disease. He has served as director of several innovative biomedical research companies aimed at developing improved treatment options for patients with vascular disease.

Collaboration and teamwork have been a central theme in Dr. Eagleton’s efforts. He views this opportunity to bring the teams at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital together as a privilege to expand the opportunities for collaboration across the system with the aim of improving the care we can provide our patients with vascular disease. 

Mass General Brigham continues an exciting and transformative journey to create the best academic health system in the world. After careful consideration and collaboration, it has been decided to integrate two of the finest divisions of Cardiac Surgery and Vascular and Endovascular Surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital into unified Mass General Brigham divisions. This decision was made with the utmost consideration for both institutions’ patients, trainees and research missions. By joining forces, the goal is to elevate the quality of care provided, enhance all training programs and further the groundbreaking research being done.

Thor Sundt, MD
Chief, Division of Cardiac Surgery, MGB
Director, Corrigan Minehan Heart Center
Co-Director, Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Program
Edward D. Churchill Professor of Surgery, Harvard Medical School

Dr. Sundt is the Edward D. Churchill Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School and chief of the Division of Cardiac Surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital. He trained in general surgery at MGH and in cardiothoracic surgery at Washington University in St. Louis before taking additional training and his first consultant position at the National Health Service of the United Kingdom. He returned to Washington University and Barnes-Jewish Hospital in 1994, where he led the Cardiac Transplant Program and established a Thoracic Aortic Surgery Program before relocating to the Mayo Clinic in 2001. At Mayo, he served as vice chair of the Department of Surgery, in addition to leading the Marfan Syndrome and Thoracic Aorta Program. Although he grew up in Rochester, he was thrilled to “come home” to Boston and MGH as chief of Cardiac Surgery in 2011. Since then, Dr. Sundt has devoted his efforts to building a multidisciplinary team of practitioners focused on delivering the best possible care to each and every patient, while contributing to the education of the next generation of caregivers and discovering the care of the future. He regards the culture of teamwork across disciplines and the evolution of the Heart Center, in collaboration with the Division of Cardiology, as well as colleagues in Anesthesia and Critical Care, as a manifestation of that philosophy and the most critical element of the program at MGH; he believes the same focus on teamwork will be critical to our collective success in the future as MGB Cardiac Surgery. 

Dr. Sundt’s clinical focus has been on surgery for the correction of acquired cardiovascular conditions in adults, including thoracic aortic disease, valvular heart disease and arterial revascularization for coronary artery disease. He has published over 400 articles. His research interests have ranged from organ transplantation to the genetics and genomics of bicuspid aortic valve disease. He has received funding for this work from the National Institutes of Health, the American Association for Thoracic Surgery and The Mayo Foundation. Most recently, he collaborated with investigators in the disciplines of human factors and systems engineering to improve the safety and efficiency of health care delivery. On a national level, he was the first chair of the Workforce on Patient Safety for the Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) and is a past president of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery (AATS).

Dr. Sundt regards it as his privilege and responsibility to preserve and build upon the proud legacies of Cardiac Surgery in both programs, while leveraging the power of the system to better serve our patients.