UNC Lineberger’s Hong Jin (HJ) Kim, MD, has been appointed vice chair of academic affairs in the UNC School of Medicine’s Department of Surgery and associate physician-in-chief of the N.C. Basnight Cancer Hospital. In his new role at the cancer hospital, Kim will work in partnership with Ethan Basch, MD, FASCO, cancer hospital physician-in-chief, and other hospital leaders and will lead surgical initiatives as cancer-related services continue to expand across the healthcare system.
The Ted B. Seagroves Jr. Distinguished Professor, Kim has held a number of leadership roles at UNC Health during his 22-year tenure, including currently serving as the chief of the Division of Surgical Oncology and Endocrine Surgery and a member of the Cancer Strategic Planning Advisory Group, which was established to develop a long-range strategic plan for UNC Health as it relates to cancer care delivery across the state of North Carolina.
“Dr. Kim’s contributions to the Department of Surgery, the cancer hospital and the medical school have been nothing short of extraordinary,” said Caprice Greenberg, MD, MPH, the Colin G. Thomas, Jr., MD Distinguished Professor and chair of the Department of Surgery. “With a demonstrated passion for collaboration, innovation and excellence on all levels, Dr. Kim is uniquely positioned to help the Department of Surgery and the cancer hospital provide the best and most advanced care for our patients.”
Kim’s clinical practice spans the breadth of surgical oncology, including pancreatic and gastrointestinal malignancies, soft tissue sarcomas, hepatobiliary malignancies, pancreatic cysts, and liver tumors and metastases. Kim, in collaboration with his colleagues in medical oncology and radiation oncology, developed the multidisciplinary programs in pancreatic cancer and soft tissue sarcomas at UNC. He has been instrumental in developing and expanding translational and clinical research in the field of pancreatic cancer. His previous translational research has focused on the mechanisms of chemoresistance in gastrointestinal cancers and sarcomas, and the role of palladin in the tumor microenvironment of pancreatic adenocarcinomas. He has been recognized with numerous teaching awards in the UNC Department of Surgery and is the founding program director for the UNC fellowship in Complex General Surgical Oncology.
Nationally, Kim has served on a variety of committees in the Society of Surgical Oncology, the Association for Academic Surgery, Society of University Surgeons, the Society for Surgery of the Alimentary Tract, and the American Surgical Association. He also has served on the editorial boards of several surgical oncology journals, and he co-leads the hepatobiliary and pancreas section of the Journal of Surgical Oncology.