O’Connell, Gillian

By Michael Hilleary | September 17, 2025

 

 

Gillian O’Connell, MD

Dr. Gillian O'Connell

Hometown:

Kansas City, KS

Undergraduate School:

Dartmouth College

Medical School:

Columbia University

Bio:

I was born and raised in Kansas City and graduated from Dartmouth College where I majored in Biology with a concentration in Government. After graduation, I moved to New York City where I worked at a healthcare consulting firm followed by an oncology-focused start up. In these roles, I developed an interest in increasing the quality of care through improving healthcare delivery systems. I then attended medical school at Columbia University where I completed a research fellowship focused on tissue engineering, solidifying my passion for reconstructive surgery and translational research. During my time at UW, I hope to continue working on improving access to high quality care while pursuing my interests in extremity reconstruction and microsurgery.

Personal Interests:

Running, road trips, camping, cooking and knitting/needlepoint

Clinical Interests:

Extremity reconstruction, hand surgery, microsurgery

Publications:

  1. O’Connell GM, Vernice N, Matavosian AA, et al. Customizable, biocompatible implants for dorsal nasal augmentation: An in vivo pilot study of eight polylactic acid scaffold designs. J Biomed Mater Res A. 2024;112(12):2086-2097. doi:10.1002/jbm.a.37764
  2. O’Connell G, Shih S, Shui M, Krikhely A, Bessler M, Rohde CH. The financial toxicity of postbariatric body contouring surgery: a survey study of an urban tertiary care center’s patients. Surg Obes Relat Dis. 2024;20(8):752-758. doi:10.1016/j.soard.2024.02.003
  3. Murphy AI, O’Connell GM, Ishtihar S, Levy AS, Rohde CH. Reply: Lymphatic Microsurgical Preventative Healing Approach for the Primary Prevention of Lymphedema: A 4-Year Follow-Up. Plast Reconstr Surg. 2024;153(2):492e-493e. doi:10.1097/PRS.0000000000011039
  4. Aschen SZ, O’Connell GM, Kutler DI, Spector JA. Financial (dis)incentives to surgical management of head and neck cancer care. Head Neck. 2024;46(6):1362-1369. doi:10.1002/hed.27649
  5. O’Connell G, Wang AS, Kurlansky P, et al. Impact of UNOS allocation policy changes on utilization and outcomes of patients bridged to heart transplant with intra-aortic balloon pump. Clin Transplant. 2022;36(2):e14533. doi:10.1111/ctr.14533