Dr. Steven D. Wexner

Dr. Wexner is the Director of the Digestive Disease Center and has been on Staff at Cleveland Clinic Florida since 1988.  He has been the Chairman of the Department of Colorectal Surgery since 1993. Dr. Wexner was Chief of Staff from 1997-2008, Chief Academic Officer from 2008-2012, and Chairman of the Division of Research and Education from 1995-2012.

He is also the communications consultant to the American College of Surgeons (ACS).  From 2012-2021, Dr. Wexner was a Regent of the ACS and served as Vice-Chair of the Board of Regents, Vice-Chair of the Finance Committee, Vice-Chair of the Executive Committee, and Regental Liaison for the Board of Governor’s Executive Committee from 2020-2021.  In 2018, Dr. Wexner became the chair ACS Commission on Cancer (CoC) National Accreditation Program for Rectal Cancer.  He has been a member of the CoC executive committee since 2017.  On October 4, 2019 became a member of the Academy of Master Surgeon Educators of the ACS.  Dr. Wexner is the Past President of the American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons Research Foundation (2014-2016), Past President of the American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons (2011-2012), Past President of the American Board of Colon and Rectal Surgery (2010-2011), and the Past President of the Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons (2006-2007). Dr. Wexner has served as a Governor to the ACS, past chair of the ACS advisory council for colon and rectal surgery from 2001-2005, and a member of the Residency Review Committee for Colon and Rectal Surgery.  On a local level, he has also served as the President of the Florida Gastroenterologic Society (2004-2005) and the South Florida Chapter of the ACS (2000-2004). Dr. Wexner has also been granted six patents and is a consultant for a variety of commercial entities.

Dr. Wexner holds academic appointments as Affiliate Professor at Florida Atlantic University; Clinical Professor at Florida International University; Professor of Surgery at the Ohio State University; Clinical Professor of Surgery at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University; Affiliate Professor of Surgery at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine; Professor of Surgery, University of Siena, Siena, Italy; Visiting Professor, Faculty of Medicine, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Hadassah Medical Organization, Jerusalem, Israel; and Visiting Professor at the University of Belgrade in Serbia.  In 1999, he was awarded an FRCS from the Royal College of Surgeons in Edinburgh, Scotland and in 2000 he was awarded an FRCS ad eundum from the Royal College of Surgeons in England; and in 2008 by unanimous election of the Council of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, the highest distinction conferred by the Council. In 2015, Dr. Wexner was awarded honorary membership in the European Surgical Association and the European Society of Coloproctology.  In 2013, Dr. Wexner was awarded an honorary foreign membership in the Argentina Society of Coloproctology. In 2012, Dr. Wexner was awarded the degree of PhD honoris causa by the University of Belgrade. In 2003, The American Jewish Committee presented Dr. Wexner with the prestigious Maimonides Award.  In 2013, he was awarded Professor Emeritus of I.M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University.  In 2016, Dr. Wexner was recognized by Cleveland Clinic Florida as a Master Clinician.  In 2017, Dr. Wexner was awarded an honorary membership into the Society of General Surgery of Peru, honorary fellowship in the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, and Honorary Clinical Senior Lecturer at the University College London.  On June 5, 2019, Dr. Wexner was award an Honorary Fellowship by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, Scotland.  

Dr. Wexner was the first surgeon in North America to popularize the colonic J-pouch for rectal cancer. Due to the study in which he participated and published, that procedure is now an acceptable standard of care for patients with rectal carcinoma. The same is true with his innovations for fecal incontinence and research of laparoscopy for colon and rectal cancer.  In 2020, Dr. Wexner became the Editor-in-Chief of the journal Surgery. Dr. Wexner has published 803 manuscripts, 269 textbook chapters, and 146 editorials and/or invited commentaries.  He is the editor or co-editor of 39 textbooks or freestanding volumes to date and is a member of 57 editorial boards and a reviewer for an additional 40 journals.  In August 2021, Dr. Wexner was listed amongst the top 2% of the most cited scientists in 198 scientific fields and subfields.  He ranked 34th amongst all cited surgeons with an H index of 82 and is currently the most cited living colorectal surgeon. (LINK)  He also authored or co-authored 5 of the top 100 cited papers in benign anorectal disease including the most frequently cited manuscript on anorectal disease. (LINK)  He is an active member of 43 learned societies and has held more than 70 appointed or elected offices in these societies.  He is an honorary member of the surgical societies of nine other countries and has held over 70 visiting professorships and delivered over 2,170 scientific lectures.  He has received 17 national, international, and regional awards for his research and is the founding Symposium Director of the Annual International Colorectal Disease Symposium held in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.  He has been the host educator to thousands of surgeons from around the world.