Dr. Lana Schumacher-Beal

Get to Know Dr. Lana Schumacher-Beal

Dr. Lana Schumacher-Beal serves as the Chief of Thoracic Surgery, Director of the Center of Innovation and is an Associate Professor at Tufts Medical Center/School of Medicine in Boston. She leads the hospital’s robotic surgery education program.

She formerly served as the director of robotic thoracic surgery for the Massachusetts General Hospital network. She was also co-director of the Esophageal and Lung Institute at Allegheny Health Network Cancer Institute. Dr. Schumacher-Beal graduated from the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and did a residency at Stanford Hospitals and Clinics and a fellowship at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

Specialties of Dr. Lana Schumacher-Beal

• Pleural mesothelioma
• Robotic surgery
• Minimally invasive surgery

Dr. Lana Schumacher-Beal’s Experience and Medical Education

• Tufts Medical Center
• Massachusetts General Hospital
• Allegheny Health Network Cancer Institute
• Stanford University Medical Center (Residency)
• University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (Fellowship)
• David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA (M.D.)

Awards and Certifications

• Tufts Springboard Research & Scholarship Award, Tufts University School of Medicine (2025)
• Double board certified in general surgery and thoracic surgery
• AATS Leadership Academy, American Association for Thoracic Surgery (2018)
• Healthcare Hero Award for Innovation in Medicine, Pittsburgh Business Times (2015)

Why Choose Dr. Schumacher-Beal for Pleural Mesothelioma 

Thoracic surgeon Dr. Lana Schumacher-Beal is advancing mesothelioma surgery through robotic thoracic techniques. “When I meet a new patient, I really try to educate them on the disease they are seeing me for,” Schumacher-Beal said. “When they leave my office, they are well-informed, able to make decisions on what their next step will be. That’s important.”

Robotic thoracic surgery is performed using the da Vinci Surgical System, a closed-chest procedure that allows doctors to remove diseased lung tissue through small incisions, leading to less trauma and a quicker recovery for patients. The use of robotics for mesothelioma is still evolving, currently serving mostly as a diagnostic tool to determine who should undergo more aggressive surgery, and to help achieve a more complete resection by targeting tumor cells in the hardest-to-reach places.

Publications of Dr. Lana Schumacher-Beal

• Schumacher, L.Y. et al. (2025, May 20). Introducing Innovations to Improve Lung Cancer Outcomes and Surgeon’s Well-Being. Retrieved from https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41110875/
• Schumacher, L.Y. et al. (2025, March). A Pilot Study Using Machine Learning Algorithms and Wearable Technology for the Early Detection of Postoperative Complications After Cardiothoracic Surgery. Retrieved from https://www.ovid.com/jnls/annalsofsurgery/abstract/10.1097/sla.0000000000006263~a-pilot-study-using-machine-learning-algorithms-and-wearable?redirectionsource=fulltextview
• Schumacher, L.Y. et al. (2024, September 30). Video-assisted versus robot-assisted thoracoscopic lobectomy: style versus substance. Retrieved from https://vats.amegroups.org/article/view/9345/html
• Schumacher, L.Y. et al. (2023, July). Pulmonary Open, Robotic, and Thoracoscopic Lobectomy study: Outcomes and risk factors of conversion during minimally invasive lobectomy. Retrieved from https://www.jtcvs.org/article/S0022-5223(22)01236-3/pdf
• Schumacher, L.Y. et al. (2020, October). Finding the “True” No Cohort: Technical Aspects of Near-infrared Sentinel Lymph Node Mapping in Non-small Cell Lung Cancer. Annals of Surgery. Retrieved from https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32657925/