Joshua Sonett

Who is Joshua Sonett?

Joshua R. Sonett MD FACS is the Chief of General Thoracic Surgery, Surgical Director of the Lung Transplant Program, and an Attending Surgeon at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center. He is also a Professor of Clinical Surgery at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. He is instrumental in making the Thoracic Surgery program at Columbia University one of the best in the US and is one of the youngest Professors of Surgery with Tenure at the major academic institutions in the United States.

Dr. Sonett is best known for his work in the multidisciplinary treatment of lung and esophageal malignancies. Leading work in minimally invasive treatment of lung and esophageal cancer. Dr. Sonett and his team at Columbia are leaders developing and teaching techniques in Video Assisted Thoracic Surgery and Minimally Invasive Esophageal surgery, allowing surgeons to incorporate these techniques into their daily practices. Dr. Sonett and his team are one of the few centers in the country to use a combination of maximal chemotherapy and radiotherapy and surgery in the treatment of locally advanced lung malignancies.

In Lung Transplantation, Dr Sonett is best known for incorporating extended donor criteria lungs into the Lung Transplant Program at Columbia. Extended donor criteria applies to the use of organs that don't meet the usual criteria for transplantation due to various health problems, but are still healthy enough for a successful transplant. Sonett and his team have been aggressively trying to alleviate the donor shortage by evaluating lungs which may be rejected from other centers. Between 2001 and 2003, 53 percent of the lungs transplanted at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia were extended donor criteria lungs, with no difference in survival between EDC lung recipients and regular lung recipients. Sonett's program has a 95% survival rate after one year, and 83% after three years, which far surpasses the national average of 79% and 62% respectively.