About

About the Author

DePaz is a board-certified general surgeon, surgical educator, and transplantation immunology researcher. He currently serves as a Surgery Residency Program Director and Attending General Surgeon in a community hospital in Brooklyn, New York, U.S.A.

Medical Education and Surgical Training

Dr. DePaz obtained his medical degree from the University of the West Indies (UWI), Kingston, Jamaica. He also completed postgraduate surgical training at the University Hospital of the West Indies. After serving as Attending General Surgeon and Lecturer at UWI, Dr. DePaz completed a second surgical residency at Harlem Hospital Center, New York, affiliated with Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons. He subsequently trained as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Physiology and Cellular Biophysics and in the Transplantation Immunology Laboratory, Department of Surgery, at Columbia University.

Clinical Career

In New York City, Dr. DePaz began as a clinician in the Surgery Intensive Care Unit at Harlem Hospital Center. He then held attending appointments at multiple New York City hospitals, including North General Hospital, Harlem Hospital Center, Woodhull Hospital. He has board certification from the American Board of Surgery. Currently, Dr. DePaz is an attending general surgean and general surgery residency director at a Brooklyn community hospital.

Academic Appointments

  • Surgery Residency Program Director, Brooklyn community hospital
  • Associate Program Director, Brooklyn community hospital
  • Special Lecturer, Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons at Harlem Hospital Center
  • Assistant Professor of Clinical Surgery, Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons at Harlem Hospital Center

Research

Dr. DePaz’s research focused on transplantation immunology, particularly tolerance induction using allopeptides, dendritic cells, and regulatory T cells in cardiac and islet transplant models. His postdoctoral work at Columbia University in the surgical immunology laboratory investigated mechanisms of acquired thymic tolerance, the role of immature myeloid dendritic cells in prolonging allograft survival, and the function of CD4^{+}CD25^{+} regulatory T cells in transplant tolerance.

In 2002 he received the Young Investigator Award from the American Society of Transplant Surgeons and American Society of Transplantation at the American Transplant Congress held in Washington, DC.

Publications

Dr. DePaz has authored or co-authored over 60 publications, including 28 original peer-reviewed articles, 13 case reports, and 30 abstracts presented at major surgical and transplantation conferences. His work appears in journals including Transplantation, Diabetes, American Journal of Transplantation, Obesity Surgery, Journal of the American College of Surgeons, and the West Indian Medical Journal. His publications span transplant immunology, bariatric surgery outcomes, breast cancer, and surgical case reports.

You can learn more about Dr. DePaz by reviewing his CV.

Professional Memberships

  • Fellow, American College of Surgeons (FACS)
  • Member, American Medical Association

About This Site

SurgicalInSite is a medical education and personal reflection website created by Dr. DePaz. It features clinical articles from his surgical training in Kingston, Jamaica, and New York City hospitals, educational outlines covering a broad range of surgical topics, slideshow presentations, and personal essays exploring his Mayan heritage, the philosophy of medicine, and the experience of surgical training.

This website should be of particular interest to the busy, over-worked Surgical Resident — the resident who, with time constraints, surfs the internet for information. We share the same experience. I find it easy and interesting to browse web pages. Here you can browse pages and review some surgical topics. The information on this site is obtained from General Surgery lectures prepared for Residents. The information should also be of interest to medical students and practicing surgeons.

This site was initially prepared using Microsoft Publisher. Subsequently, pages were rewritten using Microsoft FrontPage. The text files were originally written using Microsoft Word. Slide shows were prepared using PowerPoint. The current version of the website has been refactored with the help of Anthropic’s Claude Code publishing to SurgicalInSite.com on WordPress.com.

Note

Please provide comments or suggestions for updates to information on this site via email.