Welcoming Our New Faculty!

Katherine Bakke, MD, MPH is one of our newest Assistant Professors through the Division of Acute Care & Regional General Surgery. She will be based at Unity Point-Meriter Hospital, where she will primarily focus on clinical care and her duties as Director of the Regional General Surgery Outreach Program, developing initiatives to improve access to general surgical care for patients in rural areas of Wisconsin and northern Illinois. Dr. Bakke is no stranger to the Big Ten, having completed her MD at the University of Michigan Medical School. Since then, Dr. Bakke has spent time in Massachusetts completing her general surgery residency at the University of Massachusetts Medical School and her MPH at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health.

Daniel Cho, MD, PhD, joins Wisconsin Surgery as an Assistant Professor in the Division of Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery. Dr. Cho comes to the Midwest after starting his career on both coasts: first, completing his PhD and MD at Brown University, then his residency in integrated plastic surgery at the University of Washington in Seattle. Most recently, Dr. Cho completed a fellowship in craniofacial plastic surgery at the University of Pennsylvania and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Here, Dr. Cho will be based at University Hospital and the American Family Children’s Hospital. In addition to his clinical care, Dr. Cho will be developing a research program primarily focused on clinical outcomes and engineering applications.

Alexander Chiu MD, MPH returns after completing our Endocrine Surgery Fellowship this past summer! Now, as an Assistant Professor in the Division of Endocrine Surgery, he will be based at UW Health at East Madison Hospital. Dr. Chiu will dedicate his time equally to clinical care and research, where he is focusing on how disparities, access to care, and policy impact surgical outcomes. Dr. Chiu completed his MD at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine before spending many years at Yale University, where he completed his General Surgery residency and his MPH.

Lauren B. Nosanov, MD joins the Division of Acute Care & Regional General Surgery as an Assistant Professor. Dr. Nosanov comes to us from Weill Cornell Medicine, where she completed two fellowships. Before that, she completed her residency in general surgery at MedStar Georgetown/Washington Hospital Center in Washington, DC, and her MD at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, CA. Alongside clinical and educational responsibilities based at University Hospital, Dr. Nosanov will be developing a research program focused on palliative care in Burns, and she will carry out industry-sponsored clinical trials with Dr. Angela Gibson.

Naren Patel, DPM, is our newest Assistant Professor in the Division of Vascular Surgery. As a Podiatric Surgeon, Dr. Patel will be based at UnityPoint Health — Meriter Hospital as our inaugural medical director of podiatry services at UW Health. earned his Doctor of Podiatric Medicine (DPM) at Midwestern University Osteopathic School of Medicine. Dr. Patel is one of the only podiatric surgeons in the country to be fellowship-trained, which he completed at the Foot and Ankle Specialist of Ohio. Prior to this, he completed his podiatry residency at Tucson Medical Center in Tucson, AZ, and his DPM at Midwestern University in Glendale, AZ. In addition to his clinical duties, he has a deep interest in furthering the field of foot and ankle surgery and diabetic foot through collaborative research.

Yu Xia, MD, MS, is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery. Primarily based at University Hospital and the William S. Middleton Memorial Veterans Affairs Medical center, Dr. Xia specializes in mechanical circulatory support and heart/lung transplantation along with general adult cardiac surgery. Dr. Xia completed his MD at New York University, general surgery residency and Master’s degree in clinical research methods at Montefiore Medical Center/Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx NY, and cardiothoracic surgery and heart/lung transplant fellowships at the University of California, Los Angeles.