Siva Vithiananthan, MD FACS FICS MHCM



Siva Vithiananthan, MD FACS FASMBS FICS, is an academic Minimally Invasive, Robotic surgeon specializing in General, Bariatric and Metabolic Surgeries. He is currently the Chief of Surgery at Cambridge Helath Alliance, a Harvard Medical School Affiliate in Cambridge, MA. He is an Adjunct Professor of Surgery at Alpert Medical School at Brown University. He received his medical degree from Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons and is board certified in general surgery and surgical critical care. He is fellowship trained in advanced laparoscopic surgery and surgical critical care. Dr. Vithiananthan also received certification in Physician Leadership in Academic Medical Centers program at Harvard University’s T. H. Chan School of Public Health. Recently he was elected to Alpha Omega Alpha the only world-wide medical honor society by Brown University.
In the last decade, he led the changes in the bariatric surgical programs in Rhode Island’s largest health system- Lifespan Heath system. He helped merge two major bariatric surgery programs into a single unit that is New England’s busiest, high-quality Center for Bariatric Surgery at the Rhode Island and The Miriam Hospitals (Lifespan). He was chosen as one of the inaugural site reviewers for the American College of Surgeon’s Accreditation process for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery Quality Improvement Program. This program is the leading accreditation body for Bariatric surgery programs in the U.S and worldwide.
Dr. Vithiananthan leads a busy clinical practice in minimally invasive approaches to gastrointestinal diseases, complex hernias, and bariatric (weight loss and metabolic) surgery. His research interests have been in optimizing quality and improving value in bariatric surgery as well as behavior linked to outcomes in patients undergoing Minimally invasive and robotic surgery. He partnered with device Industry for innovation in new surgical technology for the treatment of obesity. He is a co-author of multiple patents that came out of this collaboration. He also serves on the editorial board of Journal of Surgery of Obesity and Related Diseases, as well as Journal reviewer for other peer-reviewed journals such as Surgical endoscopy and Obesity Surgery.
Dr. Vithiananthan serves in leadership capacities in many national and international surgical societies and is invited to offer his expertise in training surgeons in many countries. International College of Surgery nominated him as the inaugural Surgical Ambassador in Minimally Invasive Surgery to Nanjing Medical University in Nanjing, China. In China, Sri Lanka and Hungary he has trained hundreds of surgeons in the techniques of minimally invasive surgery over the last decade. He has received many accolades as an outstanding teacher by the surgical societies, university, peers, residents, and students. Dr. Vithiananthan was the Site-Director of the Brown Surgical Residency and Medical Student Programs at The Miriam Hospital in Rhode Island and served in the various committee at Alpert Medical School at Brown University from 2007-2021. He joined Cambridge Health Alliance on April 26, 2021 as Chief of Surgery.