Department of Surgery
University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health

Clinical Information

Specialties

David P Foley, MD

Professor

  • Folkert O. Belzer Chair, Division of Transplantation
  • Program Director, Abdominal Transplant Surgery Fellowship

foley@surgery.wisc.edu
(608) 263-2527

Clinical Science Center
600 Highland Avenue
Madison WI 53792

Education

  • MD, Boston University, 1994
  • General Surgery Residency, University of Massachusetts Medical School, 1994-2001
  • Surgical Research Fellowship, University of Massachusetts Department of Surgery, 1996-1998
  • Transplant Surgical Fellow, University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics, Madison, WI, 2001-2003

Honors

Castle Connolly America’s Top Doctors Surgery

Madison Magazine Top Docs 2016 Award Surgery, Transplantation

Dr. Foley is involved with the following professional societies:

  • American Society of Transplant Surgeons
  • American Society of Transplantation
  • American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases
  • Association for Academic Surgery
  • Surgical Biology Club II
  • Society of University Surgeons
  • Central Surgical Association
  • Transplantation Society
  • Americas Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Association
  • International Liver Transplant Society

Dr. Foley has been very active in leadership positions in national surgical and transplant societies. He has served as Co-Chair for the Grants Review Committee for the American Society of Transplant Surgeons. He served on the Executive Committee for the Association for Academic Surgery and Co-Chair of the Education Committee. He has been the Co-Chair and Chair of the Executive Committee for the Liver and Intestine Community of Practice for the American Society of Transplantation.

Clinical Specialties

Dr. Foley is certified by the American Board of Surgery in General Surgery. Dr. Foley’s clinical focus is in liver and kidney transplantation.

Dr. Foley provides a wide range of services including Kidney Transplant, Liver Transplant, Laparoscopic Donor Nephrectomy, Liver Resection, Wedge Resection of the Liver, Renal Autotransplant.

Research Interests

Dr. Foley’s clinical research interests include studying protective strategies to decrease organ damage and enhance organ function after kidney and liver transplantation. Dr. Foley focuses on identifying and modifying clinical risk factors that lead to poor liver function after liver transplantation. These include studying the use of older donor livers, livers recovered from donation after circulatory determination of death donors, and livers with steatosis. In addition, Dr. Foley leads clinical studies aimed at decreasing delayed kidney function after kidney transplantation.

Dr. Foley’s basic research efforts are focused on identifying novel protective strategies to minimize ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI) in liver and kidney transplantation. More specifically, his laboratory investigates the cell-specific effects of augmenting endogenous antioxidant pathways in the setting of hepatic and renal IRI. Activation of these pathways in a cell-specific manner can decrease oxidative stress and may promote cellular recovery from these deleterious processes. The ultimate goal is to discover new pharmacologic therapies that can decrease IRI and improve organ function after kidney and liver transplantation.

Recent Publications

  • Donor-specific antibodies in liver transplantation: challenges in diagnosis and determining clinical impact.
    Kim SC, Foley DP
    Curr Opin Organ Transplant 2020 Dec; 25(6): 549-554
    [PubMed ID: 33105198]

  • Preexisting melanoma and hematological malignancies, prognosis, and timing to solid organ transplantation: A consensus expert opinion statement.
    Al-Adra DP, Hammel L, Roberts J, Woodle ES, Levine D, Mandelbrot D, Verna E, Locke J, D'Cunha J, Farr M, Sawinski D, Agarwal PK, Plichta J, Pruthi S, Farr D, Carvajal R, Walker J, Zwald F, Habermann T, Gertz M, Bierman P, Dizon DS, Langstraat C, Al-Qaoud T, Eggener S, Richgels JP, Chang GJ, Geltzeiler C, Sapisochin G, Ricciardi R, Krupnick AS, Kennedy C, Mohindra N, Foley DP, Watt KD
    Am J Transplant 2020 Sep 25;
    [PubMed ID: 32976703]

  • Pretransplant solid organ malignancy and organ transplant candidacy: A consensus expert opinion statement.
    Al-Adra DP, Hammel L, Roberts J, Woodle ES, Levine D, Mandelbrot D, Verna E, Locke J, D'Cunha J, Farr M, Sawinski D, Agarwal PK, Plichta J, Pruthi S, Farr D, Carvajal R, Walker J, Zwald F, Habermann T, Gertz M, Bierman P, Dizon DS, Langstraat C, Al-Qaoud T, Eggener S, Richgels JP, Chang GJ, Geltzeiler C, Sapisochin G, Ricciardi R, Krupnick AS, Kennedy C, Mohindra N, Foley DP, Watt KD
    Am J Transplant 2020 Sep 24;
    [PubMed ID: 32969590]

  • Utilization of hepatitis C viremic donors for liver transplant recipients without hepatitis C. A veterans transplant center report.
    Said A, Weiss M, Varhelyi A, Farago R, Ballweg C, Rice J, Agarwal P, Fernandez L, Foley D
    Transpl Infect Dis 2020 Sep 15; e13466
    [PubMed ID: 32931616]

  • Obesity: An Independent Predictor of Morbidity and Graft Loss after Kidney Transplantation.
    Aziz F, Ramadorai A, Parajuli S, Garg N, Mohamed M, Mandelbrot DA, Foley DP, Garren M, Djamali A
    Am J Nephrol 2020; 51(8): 615-623
    [PubMed ID: 32721967]

All Publications on PubMed