2022 Donald L Morton, MD Visiting Professor Lecturer - Dr. E. Phillips Polack

Announcing the upcoming WVU Department of Surgery Special Grand Rounds 2022 Donald L. Morton, MD Visiting Professor E. Phillips Polack, MD, MA, DSc(hon), FACS.

Dr. Borgstrom will providing introductions for Dr. Polack to present his lecture both in person and virtually on April 20, 2022, beginning at 7:30 a.m. The lecture given by Dr. Polack is titled “Emery” (Ernest Armory Codman, 1869-1940) The Surgical Dude Who Did the Cartoon and Friends”.

Phil Polack is a Clinical Professor of Surgery at the West Virginia University School of Medicine.  He is the Director of the Center for Skin Cancer and Melanoma, Director of the Center for Wound Care, and Chairman of the Committee on Ethics at Wheeling Hospital.  He served two terms as Governor of the West Virginia Chapter of American College of Surgeons.  He has a master’s degree in corporate and organizational communication.  He is involved in core competency training in medical humanities and the role of communication in compassionate care and professionalism. His research interests are in communication and behavior in trauma and functional MRI observations of the verbally aggressive brain.  

Author of many papers on communication and co-author of the books titled Applied Communication for Health Professionals (2008), Medical Communication: Defining the Discipline (2011) and Medical Communication:  Defining the Discipline Second Edition (2017). Dr. Polack has thirty-two publications, 3 books, one hundred sixty-six presentations/seminars, seven research activities, and six grants over his career.
Dr. Polack currently serves as educator and instructor for Advanced Trauma Life Support with the American College of Surgeons, Committee on Trauma.  Current committees he serves on are: The State Trauma Systems Advisory Committee, West Virginia Committee on Trauma, American College of Surgeons; Rural Emergency Trauma Institute, Secretary/Treasurer/Board Member; and West Virginia University School of Medicine, Alumni Association Life Member, and Board of Advisors.  He currently is the Chairman Bylaws Committee, Ad Hoc Committee on Community Relations, and Board of Directors for the Health Plan of the Upper Ohio Valley, Inc.

Dr. Polack is married to his wife Wendy, and they have a daughter, Julie, and reside in Wheeling, WV.