Miller School Dept. of Surgery Names Dr. Laurence Sands Chair
The clinician and educator has served as interim chair since 2022 and was integral to the transformation of the Miller School’s surgical clerkship as part of the NextGen M.D. curriculum.
Laurence Sands, M.D., M.B.A., has been named chair of the DeWitt Daughtry Family Department of Surgery at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.
Dr. Sands, chief of the Division of Colon and Rectal Surgery and vice chair of surgical education at the Miller School, served as the department’s interim chair since December 2022 and has been with Miller School since his 1997 appointment as assistant professor of clinical surgery. In 2013 he established the Laurence R. Sands, M.D., Endowed Research and Education Chair in Colon and Rectal Surgery.
A top-ranked clinical, research and academic department of surgery within the number one National Institutes of Health-funded medical school in Florida, Dr. Sands sees the DeWitt Daughtry Family Department of Surgery as an international leader in surgical care, research and the development of innovative methods to provide healing and hope to patients while educating the next generation of surgeons.
His immediate goals include:
- Expanding the department’s multidisciplinary approach to patient care
- Improving patient access
- Extending outreach programs to underserved communities
- Attracting top surgeons from the U.S. and beyond to the program
Dr. Sands served as the Miller School’s vice chair of Medical Student Education and led the renewal efforts in the school’s medical student surgical education programs, including the transformation of the surgical clerkship as part of the NextGen M.D. curriculum.
An outstanding clinician and educator, Dr. Sands has received numerous teaching awards, including the Miller School’s Faculty Senate Outstanding Teaching Award and the 2022 Dean’s Annual Faculty Award for Clinical Excellence.
Dr. Sands received his M.D. from Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine prior to a general surgery residency at the Albert Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia and colon and rectal training at Cleveland Clinic Florida. In 2009 he completed his M.B.A. in health care policy and management at the University of Miami. He is an American College of Surgeons and American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons fellow who served as president and governor of the South Florida Chapter of the American College of Surgeons.
A prolific author and nationally recognized expert in clinical colorectal cancer and anorectal disease, he has written a textbook on anorectal disease, numerous book chapters and peer-reviewed articles and currently serves as a reviewer for several major medical journals.
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