Meet Dr. Farid Gharagozloo

About Dr. Gharagozloo

Dr. Farid Gharagozloo, an innovator who has pioneered the expanding role of robotics, is surgeon-in-chief of the Institute for Advanced Thoracic Surgery at the UCF Lake Nona Medical Center in Orlando, Florida.

He also serves as a professor of surgery at the University of Central Florida College of Medicine, using his vast expertise to help train the next generation of doctors. Until 2022, he served as a thoracic surgeon at AdventHealth Celebration.

Gharagozloo became the first doctor in the world to successfully use robotic surgery to perform an extrapleural pneumonectomy (EPP), the most aggressive treatment possible for mesothelioma.

He specializes in a variety of thoracic disorders, including esophageal cancer, lung cancer and pleural mesothelioma.

His work with robotics has attracted considerable attention. Although EPP has been used for almost two decades with less-invasive procedures, thoracic surgeons have only recently begun using it in the chest.

Gharagozloo’s latest book, “Robotic Surgery, Second Edition,” was recently published by Springer.

Robotic surgery involves small instruments and a camera attached to a robot controlled remotely by a surgeon at a nearby computer board. It allows for more precise movement, better maneuverability and a more magnified view.

“It’s not the golden ticket [for mesothelioma], but it can make a huge difference,” Gharagozloo said. “It could change the way we view this disease. The use of the robot with this surgery is revolutionary.”

Gharagozloo, who often lectures about robotics around the country, earned his medical degree from Johns Hopkins University and completed his residency at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.