Dr. J. Wallis Marsh Appointed Interim Chief, Division of Transplantation at the UPMC Thomas E. Starzl Transplantation Institute

PITTSBURGH, March 20, 2008 – The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center today appointed J. Wallis Marsh Jr., MD, as interim chief, division of transplantation of the UPMC Thomas E. Starzl Transplantation Institute. He will oversee the day-to-day operations of the transplant division until a successor is named. Dr. Marsh has been with the University of Pittsburgh for 15 years and is professor of surgery in the School of Medicine and co-director of the UPMC Liver Cancer Center. For the past four years, Dr. Marsh has been part of the UPMC International Living-Related liver transplant team in Palermo, Italy.

“Dr. Marsh brings a wealth of experience to this position, including performing more than 500 liver transplants,” said Timothy R. Billiar, MD, the George V. Foster Professor of Surgery and chairman, department of surgery, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. “Additionally, his skills as a scholar in academic medicine will help bolster the mission of the Starzl Institute by fostering the continual improvement of the clinical, scientific and social aspects of transplantation to improve the lives of patients with end-stage organ failure.”

Dr. Marsh was born in Warren, Ark., and studied chemistry as an undergraduate at the University of Arkansas in Little Rock. In 1979, he received his medical degree, also from the University of Arkansas. Dr. Marsh completed his general surgical residency at St. Paul Hospital in Dallas in 1984 and later a surgical fellowship in kidney transplantation at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. He joined the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine as an assistant professor of surgery in 1985 and completed a one-year fellowship in liver transplantation under the leadership of transplant pioneer Thomas E. Starzl, MD, PhD. In 1989, Dr. Marsh joined the faculty of the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and returned to the University of Pittsburgh in 1993.

In 2001, Dr. Marsh received his Masters in Business Administration at the Katz Graduate School of Business at the University of Pittsburgh. His business acumen enabled him to co-develop both Current Procedural Technology coding software and computerized operative notes for the Thomas E. Starzl Transplantation Institute.

Dr. Marsh’s areas of research include improving outcomes of transplantation for patients with liver cancer and computer technologies. Currently, he is involved in the development of models to predict progression of hepatic cancers and is investigating automated decision trees in medicine. This work is partially funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Dr. Marsh’s more than 100 peer-reviewed articles have appeared in many publications, including the Journal of the American Medical Association; American Journal of Transplantation; Clinical Transplantation; Cancer; Transplant Proceedings; Annals of Surgery; Hepatology; Radiology; among others. He also has authored more than 10 book chapters and has presented numerous abstracts at national and international transplant and oncology meetings.

Dr. Marsh’s professional affiliations include the American Society of Transplant Surgeons, the International Liver Cancer Association; the Society of Surgical Oncology; and Doctors Against Forced Harvesting of Organs.

He and his family reside in O’Hara Township, Pa.

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