Karl Y. Bilimoria, MD MS

Chair of Surgery

Jay L. Grosfeld Professor of Surgery

Department of Surgery, IU School of Medicine

Executive Director, Surgical Outcomes and Quality Improvement Center (SOQIC)

Vice President - Surgical Quality, Indiana University Health

Dr. Bilimoria is a surgical oncologist, researcher, and physician executive at Indiana University. He is the Chair of the Department of Surgery and the Jay L. Grosfeld Professor of Surgery (tenured). He is also the Vice President for Surgical Quality for the Indiana University Health system. His clinical practice is focused on melanoma, sarcoma, and gastrointestinal stromal tumors.

Dr. Bilimoria is a health services, quality improvement, health policy, and medical education researcher. He is the founding Executive Director of the Surgical Outcomes and Quality Improvement Center (SOQIC) at Indiana University, a nationally recognized research team focused on national, regional, and local quality improvement research and implementation, as well as surgical education. He has led practice-changing research evaluating the quality of cancer care in the U.S., particularly in melanoma. He has published more than 500 scientific articles, including numerous publications in JAMA and the New England Journal of Medicine (h-index=75). Dr. Bilimoria’s research has been funded by the NIH, National Cancer Institute, AHRQ, and numerous others totaling >$35M.

He is past President of the Association for Academic Surgery and the Surgical Outcomes Club, and he has been a part of the leadership for several other national organizations in surgery and oncology, including Executive Committee positions with the Society of Surgical Oncology (SSO) and the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC). He also was a Senior Adviser to the American College of Surgeons Cancer Programs for many years. He has mentored more than 50 surgical research fellows and junior faculty. He was awarded Mentor of the Year by Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine in 2020 and has been listed by Becker’s as one of the “Top 50 Experts Leading the Field of Patient Safety” in the U.S.  Dr. Bilimoria previously had a variety of executive leadership roles for the Northwestern Medicine 11-hospital health system in Chicago, particularly focusing on quality and innovation. Dr. Bilimoria lives in Indianapolis with his amazing wife and three children.