Surgical Services on the Westside

Surgeon returns to Cleveland to join the team at UH St. John Medical Center

Surgeon Victoria Wu, MD, is glad to be back in Cleveland – and back at UH.

“I did my fellowship at UH Cleveland Medical Center; I really enjoyed the time I spent here,” she says. “I liked the people, the city and all the possibilities available here.”

Dr. Wu recently spent two years at the University of Missouri, where she performed general surgery, minimally invasive surgery and cancer surgery. Her new role at UH St. John Medical Center is somewhat similar, but with an emphasis on cancer surgical services.

“The idea is to make UH St. John the Westside hub for cancer surgery,” Dr. Wu says. “Patients are comfortable where they live. If they’re comfortable in their local Westside communities, our services should meet them where they are.”

Dr. Wu earned her medical degree at Rutgers-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. She completed residency training in general surgery at UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital and Barnes-Jewish Hospital, where she was chief resident. Following a research fellowship in surgical oncology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Dr. Wu completed clinical fellowship training in surgical oncology at Roswell Park Cancer Institute and fellowship training in minimally invasive surgery at UH Cleveland Medical Center.

Dr. Wu says she’s eager to find opportunities for her two fellowship specialties to intersect.

“Surgical oncology is transitioning,” she says. “The surgeries for cancer in the past have been done with large incisions – that’s how I learned. I want to bring minimally invasive techniques into surgical oncology whenever it is safe for the patient. I want to merge the two techniques together.”

As she gets established at UH, Dr. Wu says her priority will be to make things as seamless as possible for her patients.

“One of the biggest frustrations for patients is navigation,” she says. “Patients are under a lot of stress, have a lot of information to process, and a lot of providers to see once they receive their diagnosis. I want to walk them through it, streamline the process and be as accommodating as possible. It means making sure there appointments are set up beforehand, so that there’s no question where they need to be when, or having more convenient office hours.”

Dr. Wu performs general surgery and cancer surgery at UH St. John Medical Center. For more information or to refer a patient, please call 440-827-5299.