Lucile Packard Children's Hospital Stanford Surgeon Elected to Lead Influential Pediatric Surgical Organization

For Release: July 02, 2012

STANFORD, Calif. — Pediatric surgeon Thomas Krummel, MD, who treats children at the Ford Family Surgery Center at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital Stanford and chairs the Department of Surgery at the Stanford University School of Medicine, has been elected president of the American Pediatric Surgical Association (APSA), the world's largest and most influential pediatric surgical organization. He is the first Packard Children's or Stanford surgeon to hold this prestigious position.

"We all long to belong to organizations that share our deepest beliefs and values," Krummel said. "It is an exceptional privilege to serve the American Pediatric Surgical Association, which has been that community for pediatric surgeons throughout the world."

Krummel took office as president-elect at the APSA annual meeting held May 20-23 in San Antonio. He will lead the organization for a one-year term from May 2013 to May 2014, when he will head the association's efforts to advance the surgical care of children. During his term, he hopes to draw attention to lagging development of new pediatric surgical tools. Because relatively few children need surgery, medical-device manufacturers are often reluctant to invest in scaled-down pediatric surgical tools. Pediatric surgeons at Packard Children's and Stanford are already collaborating with Silicon Valley engineers to build better surgical tools for small patients; Krummel plans to highlight the need for other similar efforts.

"We're very proud that Dr. Krummel's peers have honored him in this way,” said Christopher G. Dawes, President and CEO of Packard Children's. “He is a leader in the field of pediatric surgery and widely recognized for his research and care.

Krummel will also continue his appointments at Packard Children's and the Stanford University School of Medicine, where he is the Emile Holman Professor and Chair of the Department of Surgery, Susan B. Ford Surgeon-in-Chief at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital and professor, by courtesy, of Cardiothoracic Surgery and of Bioengineering. He is also a fellow of the American College of Surgeons and a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Find out more about the American Pediatric Surgical Association at www.eapsa.org

Authors

Robert Dicks
650-497-8364
rdicks@stanfordchildrens.org

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