Kamal Itani

Dr. Kamal M.F. Itani is an academic surgeon, health-care leader, and clinical investigator whose career has focused on improving surgical outcomes, advancing education, and serving patients in the Veterans Health Administration and beyond. He serves as Chief of Surgery and Chief of General Surgery at the VA Boston Health Care System, where he has led major clinical, quality, and research initiatives since 2004. He is also Professor of Surgery at Boston University School of Medicine and a member of the surgical faculties at Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, reflecting a long-standing commitment to multidisciplinary education and mentorship.

Educated at the American University of Beirut (AUB), Dr. Itani earned a BS in Biology–Chemistry followed by his MD, foundations that launched an international career bridging the Middle East and the United States. He completed a research fellowship in surgery at Duke University, followed by internship, residency, and a gastrointestinal surgery fellowship at Baylor College of Medicine, where he rose through the ranks to tenured associate professor. Along the way, he pursued formal training in leadership and health-care delivery, including VA Leadership 2000, a master teacher fellowship, and a program on value-based health care delivery at Harvard Business School. These experiences shaped his approach to building high-performance clinical teams and training the next generation of surgeons.

Dr. Itani’s leadership roles span local, national, and international arenas. Within the VA, he has chaired or served on executive, strategic planning, quality, and search committees at multiple medical centers, helping shape surgical services, research priorities, and educational programs over three decades. Nationally, he has held key positions in the American College of Surgeons, including Governor representing Massachusetts and Chair of the Board of Governors Workgroup on Surgeons’ Competency and Health, as well as service on task forces addressing surgeon well-being and discrimination. He has also been a technical expert for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization on surgical site infection prevention, underscoring his influence on global standards of perioperative care.

A central thread of his career is his work with professional and community organizations, particularly those representing Arab American physicians and AUB alumni. He has held numerous leadership roles in the National Arab American Medical Association, including Chief Financial Officer, Secretary, Chair of the Scientific Program Committee for its international congress in Beirut, and President and Vice President of its Houston Chapter. Through these positions, he has helped organize scientific meetings, support professional development, and foster collaboration among Arab American medical professionals. Dr. Itani has also remained deeply engaged with his alma mater, serving as President of the AUB Alumni Association of North America’s New England Chapter and President of the AUB Surgical Alumni Association of North America, as well as editor and associate editor of its newsletter. In these roles, he has worked to strengthen alumni networks, support young graduates, and maintain strong ties between AUB and the North American academic community.

Dr. Itani is widely recognized for his scholarship in surgical infections, abdominal wall and hernia surgery, and outcomes research. He has led or collaborated on numerous VA and NIH-supported studies, chaired data safety monitoring boards, and helped design multicenter clinical trials that have influenced surgical practice. His contributions have earned him honors such as recognition among the top two percent worldwide surgical scientists by a Stanford/Elsevier bibliometric analysis, honorary fellowships in international surgical societies, and multiple teaching and leadership in education awards. Across his career, he has combined rigorous clinical science, dedicated service to veterans, and sustained engagement with Arab American and AUB communities, exemplifying how surgical leadership can extend from the operating room to professional societies, global guidelines, and diaspora institutions