New Faculty

It is with great pleasure we announce and welcome our new faculty members. Each new faculty member introduces an added level of experience, quality, and service to the Department of Surgery.

Dr. Bassel Al-AlaoBassel Al-Alao, MBBS , MD, MRCSI, FRCSI(CTh)
Clinical Assistant Professor
Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery

Bassel Al-Alao, MBBS, MD, MRCSI, FRCSI(CTh), joined the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery in January 2024 as a Clinical Assistant Professor. Dr. Al-Alao’s practice site is UW Medical Center-Montlake as a cardiothoracic organ procurement specialist. In addition, he will provide essential cardiac and thoracic surgical duties and fully participate in the clinical education of our cardiothoracic residents and fellows. He will work closely with Dr. Jay Pal, Professor and Surgical Director for Heart Transplantation and Mechanical Circulatory Support.

Dr. Al-Alao received his medical degree from Damascus University, Syria, in 1999 and began his General Surgery training at that same site, continuing it in Ireland, until 2003. He then pursued his cardiothoracic surgical training in the U.K. until 2013. Dr. Al-Alao completed an one-year advanced thoracic surgical fellowship at the Mayo Clinic-Rochester, MN, an advanced adult cardiac fellowship at Emory University then returned to the U.K. to John Radcliffe hospital at Oxford University from 2016 to 2017. He relocated to the U.S. as Clinical Instructor at the University of Minnesota, and in 2018 was Clinical Associate for Thoracic Surgery at the Cleveland Clinic. He was a Consultant Cardiothoracic Surgeon at Cleveland Clinic/Fisher-Titus Medical Center affiliated hospital from 2019-2020. Dr. Al-Alao returned to the U.K. to continue his training in Cardiothoracic Surgery at Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospital from 2020-2022 and 2023 at Royal Papworth Hospital in Cardiothoracic Transplant Surgery.


Dr. Ryutaro Hirose

Ryutaro Hirose, MD
Professor & Chief
Division of Transplant Surgery

Dr. Ryutaro Hirose was recently appointed Chief of the Division of Transplant Surgery and Co - Director of the UW Medicine Transplant Institute, starting his position on November 1, 2023. Dr. Hirose is a senior and well-known transplant surgeon who had previously worked at UCSF. He has extensive experience in UNOS, within the American Society of Transplant Surgeons (ASTS) , and he currently serves as the Surgical Director of the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients (SRTR). As a leader in transplantation, Dr. Hirose has served as Chair of the UNOS Liver Committee, Chair of the ASTS Fellowship Training Committee, the Standards and Quality Committee and served as Councilor at Large. He is currently the chair of the AASLD Liver Transplantation and Surgery Committee. As an academic surgeon he has focused on ischemia reperfusion injury in the past, has current and past research funding, and now has extensive publications and national/international presentations on policy and health services research.


Dr. Katie Liu

Yusha Katie Liu, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor
Division of Plastic Surgery

Dr. Yusha Katie Liu joined the Division of Plastic Surgery in September 2023. Dr. Liu received her doctorate degree in neurobiology in 2014 and her medical degree in 2016 from the University of Washington Medical Scientist Training Program before joining the UW Department of Surgery’s integrated plastic surgery residency.

Dr. Liu is a member of the DoS Division of Research. Her basic science interests include mechanisms of axonal regeneration and muscle denervation/reinnervation. Her clinical/translational research focuses on surface EMG-based rehabilitation of muscle weakness, ultrasound in diagnosis and prognostication for peripheral nerve injuries, and functional outcomes after surgery. Dr. Liu’s science research home is in the UW Institute for Stem Cell & Regenerative Medicine (ISCRM) and her clinical research home is within the Surgical Outcomes Research Center (SORCE) and the Clinical Learning, Evidence and Research (CLEAR) Center.

As a member of the combined orthopaedics and plastic surgery UW Hand Center, Dr. Liu’s clinical practice focuses on hand and peripheral nerve surgery. Dr. Liu has also led the creation of the Northwest Institute for Nerve Injury at Harborview Medical Center, a new multidisciplinary clinic caring for peripheral nerve patients, in close collaboration with the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Department of Neurosurgery, and Department of Radiology.


Dr. Gloria Kim

Gloria Kim, MD, MPH, MS
Assistant Professor
Division of Vascular Surgery

Gloria Kim, MD, joined the Division of Vascular Surgery as Assistant Professor in October 2023. She graduated from Wellesley College with a BA in Computer Science and earned her MD from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2016. She completed an integrated Vascular Surgery residency at the University of Michigan, which included two years of dedicated research and a Master of Science in Health and Healthcare Research from the University of Michigan. During the two years of dedicated research, Dr. Kim received T32 funding and was a University of Michigan Center for Healthcare Outcomes & Policy fellow as well as an active member of a multidisciplinary aging research group. In a prior career, her work involved health policy research at one of the largest county public health departments in the country. She also has a Master of Public Health in Biostatistics and Epidemiology from Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California.

Dr. Kim’s practice site is VA Puget Sound Health Care System, covering scheduled outpatient clinics and inpatient and outpatient surgeries. She holds clinical privileges at UW Medical Center-Montlake, UW Medical Center-Northwest, and Harborview Medical Center, participating in divisional clinical call coverage and rotation at all sites with fellow vascular surgery attendings.

Dr. Kim’s research focuses on optimizing surgical care for frail patients, improving disparities in vascular surgery, better understanding the patient-doctor relationship with the aim of enhancing shared treatment decisions for peripheral artery disease, taking a wide-angle approach to improving patient-reported outcomes, and developing new technology to improve patient care. She also conducts research evaluating clinical outcomes and has significant research experience using large administrative data and registry data as well as qualitative research methods. Dr. Kim’s long-term goal is to facilitate patient-centered care in real world clinical settings through valuable, easily applicable ways.

Dr. Kim participated in clinical education during her residency as a vascular surgery trainee curriculum coordinator and as an instructor for the University of Michigan Clinical Simulation Center. She will continue her teaching responsibilities for the department’s medical students, residents, and fellows both in the clinic and operating room, as well as participate in scheduled didactic sessions for medical students and residents.