Since its launch five years ago, the Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery has been flourishing in size and scope. Our faculty numbers have more than doubled, our laboratories and clinical programs are impacting the field, and we continue to develop groundbreaking approaches and solutions by building on our interdisciplinary collaborations and forging new ones.
Five years ago, our team set out under a banner of “Teamwork, Collaboration, Mentorship and Innovation,” a motto that continues to guide our approaches today in patient care, resident and fellow training, and cutting-edge research.
Our 13 new clinical faculty members hail from 13 different residency programs, bringing with them complementary sets of skills and perspectives. In a spirit of lifelong curiosity and advancement, we learn from one another and offer our residents a wide array of professional styles and career pathway models.
Intentionally seeking synergy by building bridges with overlapping disciplines, we have developed clinical and/or research collaborations with dozens of departments. Our work alongside colleagues in ENT, Orthopaedics, Dermatology, Immunology, Transplant, Neurosciences, Psychiatry, Biomedical Engineering, Genetics, Rehabilitation, Hematology, Urology and Bioethics is changing the role of reconstruction and plastic surgery in the clinic, and contributing to scientific advancement in a variety of fields.
Our new Vascularized Composite Allotransplantation (VCA) Research Laboratory brings together investigations into transplant immunology, nerve regeneration and stem cell biology, supermicrosurgery, and regenerative medicine. The lab’s work made possible the first clinical protocol in VCA using minimal immunosuppression and shares its results worldwide in the new VCA Journal, which debuted in October 2014.
New clinical VCA programs in face, genitourinary system and abdominal wall are being established. Our team’s 2012 double-arm transplant represented a culmination of efforts by faculty surgeons, collaborators and researchers. This milestone, now immortalized in the illustrated 126-year history of The Johns Hopkins Hospital lining a main corridor of the hospital, formally put plastic surgery on the map of Johns Hopkins.
We are proud of our young department’s accomplishments and look forward to continuing to uphold our role in the institution’s venerable tradition for generations to come.
W. P. Andrew Lee, M.D.
The Milton T. Edgerton, M.D., Director and Professor of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery