Dr. David Kooby specializes in laparoscopic and open surgical methods of treating tumors of the liver, bile ducts, pancreas, adrenal glands, spleen, stomach, small bowel, colon and rectum. He has taught many regional and national courses on laparoscopic resection of the liver, pancreas, and colon. He also has expertise with soft tissue sarcoma of the retroperitoneum. His research interests are focused on improving the multidisciplinary care of cancers of the liver, pancreas, stomach and colon; advancing minimally invasive methods of tumor surgery; conducting clinical trials of gastrointestinal malignancies; and finding methods of reducing blood product transfusion in patients undergoing surgery for cancer.
Upon receiving his MD at the State University of New York, Downstate Medical College, Brooklyn, NY, in 1994, Dr. Kooby completed his surgical residency at Vanderbilt University, where he won numerous teaching awards including the Joseph and Bonnie Graves Award for Excellence in Clinical Teaching as well as the Residents’ Teaching Award of the Vanderbilt University Student Curriculum Committee. He completed both research and clinical fellowships at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, and he was promptly recruited by Emory in 2003, and appointed Assistant Professor of Surgery in the Division of Surgical Oncology. In 2009 he was promoted to Associate Professor and he now serves as the Director of Surgical Oncology at Emory/Saint Joseph's Hospital in Atlanta, and the Director of Robotic and Minimally Invasive Gastrointestinal Surgical Oncology.
Dr. Kooby’s excellence as a faculty surgeon has been recognized in various ways, including his receipt of a Cancer Scholar Stipend from the Georgia Cancer Coalition in 2004, being named an Honored Clinical Professor by the Emory University School of Medicine Class of 2007, and being inducted into the Alpha Omega Alpha medical honor society at Emory in 2008. He serves on several national committees including the task force charged with updating the staging of hepatobiliary malignancies for the 7th edition of the American Joint Committee on Cancer’s Cancer Staging Manual, the research and education committee for the American Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Association, and the clinical affairs committee for the Society of Surgical Oncology. He is a member of such prestigious surgical societies as the American College of Surgeons, the Society of Surgical Oncology, the Southeastern Surgical Association, Georgia Surgical Association, and the American Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Association. He has published numerous journal articles and book chapters, and the text; A Clinician’s Guide to Nuclear Oncology. He is a sought after speaker for national meetings and institutions.
