Bruce Gewertz was born in Philadelphia Pennsylvania and attended a 5-year combined program in undergraduate and medical school at Pennsylvania State University and Jefferson Medical School. He trained in general and vascular surgery at the University of Michigan (1972-1977).
Dr. Gewertz served on the faculty at Southwestern Medical School in Dallas (1977-1981) and at the University of Chicago (1981-2006). There he enjoyed a regional and national referral practice in vascular surgery and established a basic science laboratory focused on cellular mechanisms of ischemia-reperfusion injury. Dr. Gewertz was consistently funded by the NIH and American Heart Association and published his work in the most highly refereed research journals such as the American Journal of Physiology and Arteriosclerosis Thrombosis and Vascular Biology.
For the last 14 years of his tenure at the University of Chicago, he served as the Dallas Phemister Professor and Chair of the Department of Surgery. The Department included all surgical disciplines and more than doubled in size and revenues during his chairmanship. Federal funding was also substantially increased (> 3 fold) to consistently place the department in the top 20 surgery units in the country. Dr. Gewertz was the first Faculty Dean for Medical Education overseeing a curricular revision at Pritzker School of Medicine funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Since joining Cedars-Sinai Health System in 2006, he has focused on ensuring that hospital operations support the institution’s academic mission. In his position as Vice-President for Interventional Services, he has provided professional leadership and oversight for the entire surgical and interventional operation. He is also Executive Vice Dean for Faculty Affairs and Clinical System Development, building tertiary programs in our growing health system and enhancing interdepartmental and institute relations. In 2024, he took on the role of Executive Director of Cedars-Sinai Olympic Healthcare, consulting with the non-profit organizing committee LA28 and the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) for the upcoming Games.
Under Dr. Gewertz’ leadership as Surgeon-in-Chief, all Cedars-Sinai surgical programs are perennially ranked in the top 20 in US NEWS and World Report including the #2 programs in GI surgery, thoracic surgery, heart surgery, vascular surgery and orthopedics. Annual NIH/DOD expenditures have increased from $250,000 per year in 2006 to more than $10M (direct and indirect) on a recurring basis, placing the department in the top 20 nationally.
Dr. Gewertz has established a new direction in his personal research and now focuses on the role of human factors in clinical performance and the importance of emotional intelligence in personal and professional development. The basic approach has been developing objective measures of efficiency and safety in diverse situations such as the emergent care of traumatic injuries and other surgical scenarios.
These efforts have resulted in more than 250 publications, significant grant funding as PI (exceeding $6M) as well as many prestigious national speaking engagements. His more than 200 external talks have included more than 30 named lectureships. He has become a national figure and advocate for physician personal development and methods to mitigate “burnout.” Along with David Logan, he authored a bestselling book on physician leadership (The Best Medicine: A Physicians Guide to Effective Leadership, Springer, New York, NY, 2015) and Human Factors in Surgery with Tara Cohen and Eric Ley (Springer, 2021). In recent years, he has also developed and taught executive leadership courses at the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago. Dr. Gewertz’ scholarship in this area, has been transformative in understanding leadership in medicine as an acquired skill that can be measured, evaluated, taught, and improved much like technical skills.
He is internationally known for his personal excellence in the treatment of carotid artery disease and mesenteric ischemic syndromes. His large clinical experience has led to authorship of two popular surgical textbooks (Atlas of Vascular Surgery, published by Elsivier with now 2 editions in 7 different languages and Surgery of the Aorta and its Branches, published by Saunders).
Dr. Gewertz has received numerous prestigious awards for his basic investigations and teaching including the Cedars-Sinai Pioneer in Medicine award and the Distinguished Science Alumnus and Alumini Fellow awards from Pennsylvania State University. He is widely sought on the lecture circuit and is consistently included in Best Doctors in America, Who’s Who in America, and Who’s Who in the World.