Dr. Kavic's ILLUSTRIOUS CAREER

ILLUSTRIOUS CAREER

Dr. Michael S. Kavic

Hometown: Dravosburg, Pa.

Residence: Canfield.

Family: Wife, Patricia, registered nurse with a master’s degree in social work. She and three others founded the Opera Western Reserve in Youngstown; children, Dr. Suzanne Kavic, reproductive endocrinologist, Chicago; Alicia Ogilvie, Sterling, Va.; Dr. Stephen Kavic, laparoscopic surgeon, University of Maryland; Christian Kavic, medicare specialist, Pittsburgh; and four grandchildren.

Education: Hopewell Senior High School, Aliquippa, Pa., 1959; University of Pittsburgh, bachelor of science, chemistry, 1962; Meharry Medical College, Nashville, Tenn., medicine, 1966; St. Francis Hospital, Pittsburgh, internship, general surgery, 1966-1967; St. Elizabeth Health Center, residency, general surgery; Advance Laparoscopic Training Center, Marietta, Ga., 1990; University of Kiel, German, operative pelviscopy, 1992.

Medical career: St. Elizabeth Health Center, Youngstown, active staff, 2000 to present; St. Joseph Health Center, Warren, consulting staff, 2000 to present.

Academic career: St. Elizabeth Health Center, visiting faculty, basic sciences, 1992-1999; Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine and Pharmacy, visiting assistant, associate professor and professor of surgery; professor of clinical surgery; vice chairman, Department of Surgery; associate dean for clinical education.

Military: Navy, 1966-1971, and 1971 and 1972 when he was the only surgeon on the attack aircraft carrier USS Oriskany, Republic of Vietnam; achieved the rank of lieutenant commander.

Other: Journal of the Society Laparoendoscopic Surgeons, editor-in-chief, 1996 to present; Society of Laparoendoscopic Surgeons, president, 1997; Pittsburgh Surgical Society and American Hernia Society, founding member; St. Elizabeth Health Center, director of education, general surgery; Mankind and Cancer-Surgical member of the Scientific Oncology at the Start of the Third Millennium, Rome, planning committee; St. Elizabeth Health Center, chairman surgical education council; member, graduate Medical Education Committee, member, Trauma Committee; chairman, Ethics Committee; NEOUCOM, principal investigator, animal laboratory, swine model.

On his meeting with Pope John Paul II to present the surgeons’ report on surgical management strategies for cancer for the 21st century convened by the pope in Rome in 2000: “I was selected by my fellow surgeons ... to present our report to the pope. As Patricia and I were one the way to the audience, she grabbed my arm and dragged me into a gift shop and bought every medal there for me to take to the meeting. Her thought was that if I was going to be blessed by the pope, the medals would also be blessed. All of the children got one of the medals and others are marked for the grandchildren. For myself, I clanked when I walked in to meet the pope.

Dr. David Gemmel, Ph.D., senior director for medical education and research at St. Elizabeth Health Center: “Dr. Kavic has a great deal of integrity and humility and is very honest with his patients, colleagues and other physicians. While technically Dr. Kavic’s boss at the hospital, I am looking forward to helping plant his vineyard. And the only pay I expect is a bottle of wine.”

Source: Dr. Michael S. Kavic and Dr. David Gemmel