>STAFF & FACULTY

JAMES C. "BUTCH" ROSSER, Jr., MD, FACS

Dr. James “Butch” Rosser, Jr. was born in 1954 in Rome, Mississippi, but despite growing up in the segregated south, he refused to be burdened by its racial, financial, and social barriers. He received his undergraduate degree in chemistry and biology from the University of Mississippi. He completed his medical training at the University of Mississippi School of Medicine before completing a five-year surgical residency at Akron General Medical Center, where in 1984-85 he served as Chief Resident.

After his residency, Dr. Rosser began a private surgical practice at Akron General Medical Center and accepted a position as Assistant Professor of Surgery at Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine, where he received the 1991 “Golden Apple Professor of the Year” award for his outstanding contributions to medical education. Early in his career, inspired by Dr. Herbert Awender, Dr. Rosser realized the potential of endoscopic and minimally invasive surgery. He has pioneered a number of minimally invasive procedures, most notably his streamlined laparoscopic suturing technique, and now travels the globe teaching his Laparoscopic Suturing Symposium and other techniques to thousands of surgeons. He has also distinguished himself by performinglaparoscopic cholecystectomy procedures on some of the youngest individuals inthe world (15, 17, and 19 months), which earned him Kent State University’s “Minority Achievement Award.”

Currently, Dr. Rosser is the Director of Minimally Invasive Surgery at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York, as well as the Director of Beth Israel’s Advanced Medical Technologies Institute. Before joining Beth Israel, he was Associate Professor and Director of Endo-Laparoscopic Surgery at Yale University. He has been a contributing editor of Surgical Laparoscopy and Endoscopy, a moderator at the Fourth World Endoscopic Congress, and chairperson of the minimally invasive post-graduate course for the American College of Surgeons, Society of American Gastrointestinal Endoscopic Surgeons (SAGES), American Medical Association and Southern Medical Association. Dr. Rosser has written two books due to be released this fall, several chapters in major laparoscopic textbooks, and over forty surgical journal articles. His medical research interests are mini-laparoscopy under local anesthesia, conscious pain mapping, nerve injury syndromes, long-term central venous catheters, and continuous dynamic monitoring during endoscopic and laparoscopic procedures.

Dr. Rosser has authored eight CD-ROM titles over the last five years, and six of them will be released next spring under the “Yale University Laparoscopic Series" label. His efforts have not only been directed toward surgeons, but have also broken new ground in the area of patient information and informed consent, gaining critical acclaim in both the New England Journal of Medicine and its European counterpart The Lancet.

As the founder of the non-profit organization Modern Day Miracle Incorporated, Dr. Rosser’s goal is to expose the ‘modern day miracle’ of minimally invasive surgery to underprivileged and undereducated countries around the world, many times via telemedicine, the remote care of patients using modern telecommunications. His “Operation Outreach” pioneered the technique of remotely guiding surgeons with little or no experience, who ultimately performed successful advanced laparoscopic procedures with Dr. Rosser thousands of miles away, and he feels that the safe maturation of telemedicine should be an important aspect of 21st century healthcare. Modern Day Miracle Incorporated provides follow-up inspection, data gathering, and continuing education tours to countries in need, as well as here in the United States, thereby allowing the art form of laparoscopic surgery to be properly nurtured. The program has been implemented in Greece, Jamaica, Aruba, and other Caribbean countries. Dr. Rosser’s research and development activities have been featured on the Learning Channel, the CBS Morning Show, CNN, and the Discovery Channel, and he has garnered three Smithsonian Awards.

For Dr. Rosser's CV, click here