Tracy Hull is professor of surgery at the Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University. She is also the holder of the Victor Fazio Endowed Chair. She has been a member of the Department of Colon and Rectal Surgery at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation in Cleveland, Ohio since 1993. She is Department of Colon and Rectal Surgery Vice-Chair for Staff and Trainee Development. She recently completed her term on the Board of Governors for the Cleveland Clinic enterprise.
She received her Doctorate of Medicine, Cum Laude, from The Ohio State University in 1986. She did her surgical residency at SUNY Syracuse, New York from 1986-1991. Her fellowship was done at The Cleveland Clinic Foundation from 1991-1992.
She has authored, or co-authored on over 200 peer reviewed articles and over 60 book chapters. She has been the editor on several text books covering colon and rectal surgery including two of the editions of the ASCRS Textbook of Colon and Rectal Surgery. She has a diverse practice that includes most aspects of colon and rectal surgery including colon and rectal cancer, ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s disease, pelvic floor dysfunction, rectovaginal fistula, and diverticulitis.
Dr. Hull is a member of numerous professional societies. She serves as a Past-President for The American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons. She completed her 10 year term on the American Board of Colon and Rectal Surgery where she was the Written Examination Chair for 6 years. She also served on the (ACGME) Colorectal Surgery Residency Review Committee. She is currently the chair of the Accreditation Committee for the National Accreditation Program for Rectal Cancer (part of the Commission on Cancer). She is the current president of the Society of Pelvic Surgeons.
Dr. Garrett Friedman is a Colon & Rectal Surgeon with Las Vegas Complex Surgical Specialists in Las Vegas, NV. Dr. Friedman has treats a wide variety of conditions but specializes in minimally invasive robotic surgery with a special interest in robotic transanal surgery (Xi/SP), robotic re-operative surgery, natural orifice robotic surgery and fully robotic single port trans-abdominal procedure. Dr Friedman is also a PI for the FDA clinical trial for SP Robotic Colectomy. Dr. Friedman obtained his medical degree from Medical College of Wisconsin. He did his residency at Loma Linda University and his fellowship at Weill-Cornell/New York Presbyterian Memorial Sloan Kettering Columbia University Program. Dr. Friedman is also an expert in hereditary colon cancer syndromes, and has edited a textbook on the management of these complex syndromes. He is a co-author of the Clinical Practice Guidelines for colon cancer survivorship and the lead author for the Clinical Practice Guidelines for Lynch Syndrome for the American Society of Colon & Rectal Surgeons.
Dr. Pat Sylla graduated from Weill Cornell Medical College in 2000 and completed her General Surgery residency at Columbia University Medical Center. She completed fellowship training in Colorectal Surgery at Mount Sinai Hospital and Advanced Laparoscopic Surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Sylla is an innovator with particular interest in minimally invasive approaches to rectal diseases. While still a clinical fellow, she initiated a transanal NOTES project in a swine model that transitioned to a cadaveric model and led to the first clinical case of transanal total mesorectal excision (taTME) for rectal cancer in 2009. Dr. Sylla has helped implement taTME worldwide and is leading the North American Phase II Multicenter North American trial of taTME for rectal cancer. Dr. Sylla is a Professor of Surgery at Mount Sinai Hospital where she serves as System Chief of colorectal surgery, associate program director of the colorectal fellowship, and director of clinical trials for the Department of Surgery. Her clinical practice focuses on minimally invasive treatment of colorectal rectal cancer, diverticular disease and IBD. She is president elect of SAGES.
