E. Christopher Ellison

Professor Emeritus of Surgery Christopher.Ellison@osumc.edu

E. Christopher Ellison MD is Robert M Zollinger Professor of Surgery Emeritus at The Ohio State University College of Medicine. He previously served as the President and CEO of the Ohio State University Physicians Practice Plan and was a founding member of that organization. He served as Interim Dean of the OSU College of Medicine from 11-15-14 to 8-31-16 and Chair of Surgery 2000-2013. He was previously recognized as the College of Medicine Distinguished Professor. He is a physician executive and a practicing general surgeon in an academic setting.

A Columbus, Ohio native, Dr. Ellison received his undergraduate degree from the University of Wisconsin in 1972 and his medical degree from the Medical College of Wisconsin in 1976. He returned to Columbus for general surgery residency at Ohio State. Dr. Ellison then joined the university in 1984 as assistant professor. In 1987, he entered community practice in Columbus and then returned to the Ohio State University to direct the Division of General Surgery and also served for six years as director of the general surgery residency program. In 2000, he was named as Chair of the Department and served until April 2013 when he stepped down to assume the full time role of the CEO of the OSU Faculty Group Practice. During his tenure as Chair of Surgery, he oversaw the expansion of the department and creation of a multidisciplinary basic science and clinical research programs in the Department of Surgery as well as a structured Masters of Medical Science in the College of Medicine and the Center for Minimally Invasive Surgery. His research interests include pancreatic disease, hepatic cancer, wound healing, and Zollinger-Ellison Syndrome. He has published over 150 peer reviewed articles. He is principle author with Robert M. Zollinger Jr. of the 10th Edition of Zollinger’s Atlas of Surgical Operations published in April 2016. He is an Associate Editor of Fischer’s Mastery of Surgery 7th Edition, currently in preparation. 

More recently he has a primary interest in issues involving the future of general surgery. He is co-author of a book entitled “The Coming Shortage of Surgeons” which defines the impending shortage of surgeons in multiple specialties, including general surgery, the access problems this may create and how we can adjust surgical training to meet the workforce needs. In addition, he has co-authored multiple papers on the surgical workforce including: rural work general surgery workforce issues, faculty retention strategies at academic medical centers and future paradigms for surgery training.

Dr. Ellison is a past president of the Central Surgical Association, as well as a past Ohio Chapter president and governor-at-large of the American College of Surgeons (ACS) and served as the Chair of ACS Advisory Council for General Surgery as well as the Chair of the ACS Advisory Council Chairs for Surgical Specialties. He is a past vice president of the American Association of Endocrine Surgeons. He also serves on the editorial board of the American Journal of Surgery and as a Deputy Editor for the Journal of the American College of Surgeons. Dr. Ellison was elected in 2003 as a Director of American Board of Surgery as a representative of the ACS. For three years he has served as chair of the ABS Examination Committee, as well as serving as a member at large on the Executive Committee. During his time as a Director of the ABS he has served as the representative to the American Board of Colorectal Surgery. He served as Vice Chair of the American Board of Surgery in 2009-2010 and as Chair of the ABS in 2010-2011. He served as the Secretary of the American Surgical Association from 2009-2014, Treasurer of the James IV Association of Surgeons  2009-2014, President of The Society of Surgical Chairs (2011-2012) and President of the James IV Association of Surgeons 2015-2017. He is President-Elect of the American Surgical Association. He will assume the Presidency of the American Surgical Association in April of 2018.