Karl Y. Bilimoria, MD
Chair, Department of Surgery
Jay L. Grosfeld Professor of Surgery
Vice President of Surgery Quality, IU Health
- karlb@iu.edu
- Address
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545 Barnhill Dr.
DEPT OF SURGERY, EH 203
Indianapolis, IN 46202 - PubMed:
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Bio
Dr. Bilimoria is a surgical oncologist, researcher, and physician executive at Indiana University. He is the Chair of the Department of Surgery and the Jay L. Grosfeld Professor of Surgery (tenured). He is also the Vice President for Surgical Quality for the Indiana University Health system. He serves on the Boards of the IU Health Medical Group and the Metro Region. His clinical practice is focused on melanoma and sarcoma. He is a native Hoosier and graduate of the Indiana University School of Medicine.
Dr. Bilimoria is a health services, quality improvement, health policy, and medical education researcher. He is the founding Executive Director of the Surgical Outcomes and Quality Improvement Center (SOQIC) at Indiana University, a nationally recognized research team focused on national, regional, and local quality improvement research and implementation, as well as surgical education. SOQIC was located to Indiana University in 2022 from Northwestern.
Dr. Bilimoria also founded the 56-hospital Illinois Surgical Quality Improvement Collaborative (ISQIC), which is now merged with Indiana hospitals to become the Iliana Surgical Quality Improvement Collaborative. He also developed a novel platform for innovative surgical education trials as the Principal Investigator of the 151-hospital FIRST Trial and the co-PI of the subsequent 215-hospital SECOND Trial and THIRD Trial. The SECOND Trial and this surgical education trials platform were also relocated to Indiana University in 2022.
Dr. Bilimoria has published more than 500 scientific articles, including numerous publications in JAMA and the New England Journal of Medicine (h-index=84). Dr. Bilimoria’s research is funded by the NIH, AHRQ, and numerous others totaling >$35M. He is currently a co-PI on multiple program grants and a NIH T32.
He is past President of the Association for Academic Surgery and the Surgical Outcomes Club, and he has been a part of the leadership for several other national organizations in surgery and oncology. Dr. Bilimoria has mentored more than 60 surgical research fellows and junior faculty. He was awarded Mentor of the Year by Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine in 2020 and has been listed by Becker’s as one of the “Top 50 Experts Leading the Field of Patient Safety” in the U.S.
Dr. Bilimoria previously had a variety of executive leadership roles for the Northwestern Medicine 11-hospital health system in Chicago, particularly focusing on quality and innovation. Dr. Bilimoria lives in Indianapolis with his amazing wife and three children.
Key Publications
Selected High-Impact Original Articles (Full List Below) – (h-Index=84)
1. Bilimoria KY, Bentrem DJ, Ko CY, Stewart AK, Winchester DP, Talamonti MS. National failure to operate on early stage pancreatic cancer. Ann Surg. 2007;246(2):173-80. PubMed PMID: 17667493; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC1933550.
2. Bilimoria KY, Bentrem DJ, Ko CY, Stewart AK, Winchester DP, Talamonti MS, Sturgeon C. Extent of surgery affects survival for papillary thyroid cancer. Ann Surg. 2007;246(3):375-84. PubMed PMID: WOS:000249174900004.
3. Bilimoria KY, Bentrem DJ, Stewart AK, Talamonti MS, Winchester DP, Russell TR, Ko CY. Lymph node evaluation as a colon cancer quality measure: a national hospital report card. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2008;100(18):1310-7. PubMed PMID: 18780863; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC2720724.
4. Bilimoria KY, Bentrem DJ, Lillemoe KD, Talamonti MS, Ko CY, Canc ACSP. Assessment of Pancreatic Cancer Care in the United States Based on Formally Developed Quality Indicators. J Natl Cancer I. 2009;101(12):848-59. PubMed PMID: WOS:000267225000007.
5. Bilimoria KY, Raval MV, Bentrem DJ, Wayne JD, Balch CM, Ko CY. National assessment of melanoma care using formally developed quality indicators. J Clin Oncol. 2009;27(32):5445-51. PubMed PMID: 19826131.
6. Bilimoria KY, Bentrem DJ, Talamonti MS, Stewart AK, Winchester DP, Ko CY. Risk-based selective referral for cancer surgery: a potential strategy to improve perioperative outcomes. Ann Surg. 2010;251(4):708-16. PubMed PMID: 19898231.
7. Bilimoria KY, Cohen ME, Ingraham AM, Bentrem DJ, Richards K, Hall BL, Ko CY. Effect of postdischarge morbidity and mortality on comparisons of hospital surgical quality. Ann Surg. 2010;252(1):183-90. PubMed PMID: 20531000.
8. Bilimoria KY, Chung J, Ju MH, Haut ER, Bentrem DJ, Ko CY, Baker DW. Evaluation of surveillance bias and the validity of the venous thromboembolism quality measure. JAMA. 2013;310(14):1482-9. PubMed PMID: 24100354.
9. Bilimoria KY, Liu YM, Paruch JL, Zhou L, Kmiecik TE, Ko CY, Cohen ME. Development and Evaluation of the Universal ACS NSQIP Surgical Risk Calculator: A Decision Aid and Informed Consent Tool for Patients and Surgeons. J Am Coll Surgeons. 2013;217(5):833-+. PubMed PMID: WOS:000325759500011.
10. Rajaram R, Chung JW, Jones AT, Cohen ME, Dahlke AR, Ko CY, Tarpley JL, Lewis FR, Hoyt DB, Bilimoria KY. Association of the 2011 ACGME resident duty hour reform with general surgery patient outcomes and with resident examination performance. JAMA. 2014;312(22):2374-84. PubMed PMID: 25490328.
11. Bilimoria KY. Facilitating Quality Improvement: Pushing the Pendulum Back Toward Process Measures. JAMA. 2015;314(13):1333-4. PubMed PMID: 26441175.
12. Merkow RP, Ju MH, Chung JW, Hall BL, Cohen ME, Williams MV, Tsai TC, Ko CY, Bilimoria KY. Underlying reasons associated with hospital readmission following surgery in the United States. JAMA. 2015;313(5):483-95. PubMed PMID: 25647204.
13. Rajaram R, Barnard C, Bilimoria KY. Concerns about using the patient safety indicator-90 composite in pay-for-performance programs. JAMA. 2015;313(9):897-8. PubMed PMID: 25654581.
14. Rajaram R, Chung JW, Kinnier CV, Barnard C, Mohanty S, Pavey ES, McHugh MC, Bilimoria KY. Hospital Characteristics Associated With Penalties in the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Hospital-Acquired Condition Reduction Program. JAMA. 2015;314(4):375-83. PubMed PMID: 26219055.
15. Bilimoria KY, Barnard C. The New CMS Hospital Quality Star Ratings: The Stars Are Not Aligned. JAMA. 2016;316(17):1761-2. PubMed PMID: 27802552.
16. Bilimoria KY, Chung JW, Hedges LV, Dahlke AR, Love R, Cohen ME, Hoyt DB, Yang AD, Tarpley JL, Mellinger JD, Mahvi DM, Kelz RR, Ko CY, Odell DD, Stulberg JJ, Lewis FR. National Cluster-Randomized Trial of Duty-Hour Flexibility in Surgical Training. N Engl J Med. 2016;374(8):713-27. PubMed PMID: 26836220. New England Journal of Medicine, *NEJM 10 Most Notable Studies of 2016.
17. Asch DA, Bilimoria KY, Desai SV. Resident Duty Hours and Medical Education Policy — Raising the Evidence Bar. New England Journal of Medicine. 2017;376(18):1704-6. PubMed PMID: 28402246.
18. DeLancey JO, Softcheck J, Chung JW, Barnard C, Dahlke AR, Bilimoria KY. Associations Between Hospital Characteristics, Measure Reporting, and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Overall Hospital Quality Start Ratings. JAMA. 2017;317(19):2015-7. PubMed PMID: 28510670.
19. Dahlke AR, Quinn CM, Chung JW, Bilimoria KY. Surgical Residents’ Work Hours and Wellbeing in Year 2 of the FIRST Trial. New England Journal of Medicine. 2017;377(2):192-194.
20. Hu YY, Ellis RJ, Hewitt DB, Yang AD, Cheung EOY, Moskowitz JT, Potts JR, Buyske J, Hoyt DB, Nasca T, Bilimoria KY. Surgical Residents’ Experiences With Discrimination, Abuse, Harassment and Burnout. New England Journal of Medicine. 2019;381(18), 1741-1752.
21. Bilimoria KY, Birkmeyer JD, Burstin H, Dimick JB, Joynt Maddox KE, Dahlke AR, DeLancey JO, Pronovost PJ. Rating the Raters: An Evaluation of Publicly Reported Hospital Quality Rating Systems. New England Journal of Medicine Catalyst. 2019; 2642-0007.
22. Yuce TK, Chung JW, Barnard C, Bilimoria KY. Association of State Certificate of Need Regulation With Procedural Volume, Market Share, and Outcomes Among Medicare Beneficiaries. JAMA. 2020;324(20):2058-2068.
23. Bilimoria KY and Barnard CE. An Evolving Hospital Quality Rating CMS from System. JAMA. 2021; published online.
| Year | Degree | Institution |
|---|---|---|
| 2008 | MS | Northwestern University |
| 2003 | MD | Indiana University |
| 1998 | BA | Northwestern University |
Dr. Bilimoria's research interests focus on a variety of topics related to improving healthcare quality and delivery by (1) developing better ways to provide hospitals with comparative data, (2) providing hospitals with the tools to use their data to undertake internal hospital quality improvement efforts, (3) providing patients with better comparative data through public reporting, which can assist them in selecting the best hospitals and physicians for their care, and (4) performing evaluations of policies that impact healthcare quality.
Additionally, Dr. Bilimoria has an interest in large-scale, national surgical education trials seeking to improve residency training and the resident learning environment. He also has a focus on mentoring research residents and junior faculty. Dr. Bilimoria has mentored more than 60 mentees, many of whom have won awards for their research, earned independent funding, published first-author papers in major journals such as JAMA and NEJM, and been recruited back to the SOQIC team.
- Sarcoma
- Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumors