Tomoaki Kato, MD
Locations and Appointments
ColumbiaDoctors - 136-20 38th Avenue
CUIMC/Presbyterian Hospital and Vanderbilt Clinic
CUIMC/NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital
ColumbiaDoctors - Midtown
Second Opinion
Insurances Accepted
Before your appointment, please contact the doctor's office or your insurance provider to verify that your insurance is accepted. This list of insurances can change, and the insurance plans listed may not be accepted at all office locations for this provider.
About Tomoaki Kato, MD
If you need assistance in Chinese (Mandarin & Cantonese), please call 646-317-6325. Visit Columbia Liver Asian Outreach Office (English | Mandarin)
Tomoaki Kato, M.D., is a noted pioneer in multiple-organ transplantation, pediatric and adult liver transplantation. Dr. Kato is Surgical Director of Adult and Pediatric Liver and Intestinal Transplantation at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Irving Medical Center and is a professor of surgery at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.
Dr. Kato is known for unique and innovative surgeries for adults and children, including a six-organ transplant; a procedure called APOLT (auxiliary partial orthotopic liver transplantation) that resuscitates a failing liver by attaching a partial donor liver, making immunosuppressant drugs unnecessary and the first successful human partial bladder transplantation involving the transplant of two kidneys together with ureters connected to a patch of the donor bladder. In a highly publicized case, he led the first reported removal and re-implantation, or auto-transplantation, of six organs to excise a hard-to-reach abdominal tumor.
Previously the director of pediatric liver and gastrointestinal transplant and professor of clinical surgery at the University of Miami School of Medicine, Dr. Kato received his medical degree from the Osaka University Medical School in Japan and received his residency training in surgery at Osaka University Hospital and Itami City Hospital in Hyogo, Japan. He completed a clinical fellowship in transplantation at the University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Hospital, in Miami, Florida, where he was subsequently appointed to the surgical faculty in 1997, and promoted to full professor in 2007. He served as a surgeon and senior leader of the liver and transplantation center at Miami's Jackson Memorial Hospital, beginning in 1997, and at University of Miami Hospital (previously Cedars Medical Center), beginning in 2004. Dr. Kato is a member of numerous professional and honorary organizations, and the author or co-author of more than 180 scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals.
Visit The Center for Liver Disease and Transplantation at columbiasurgery.org/liver
Languages Spoken
- Japanese
Specialties & Expertise
- Abdominal Organ Transplantation
- Abdominal Wall Transplantation
- Auto Transplantation
- Auxiliary Transplant
- Cholangiocarcinoma
- Ex-Vivo Resection
- Fibrolamellar hepatocellular carcinoma (Fibrolamellar HCC)
- Hepatobiliary Surgery
- Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC)
- Intestinal Transplant
- Liver Transplant
- Liver Transplant, Pediatric
- Liver Transplantation
- Multivisceral Transplantation
- Organ Transplant, Pediatric
- Pediatric Liver Cancer
- Sarcoma
- Small Bowel Resection
- Small Bowel Transplant, Pediatric
- Small Bowel Transplantation
- Surgical Oncology
Education
- Medical School: Osaka University, Japan
- Fellowship: University of Miami Hospital
- Residency: Itami City Hospital, Hyogo, Japan
Leadership, Titles & Positions
- Chief, Division of Abdominal Organ Transplant and Hepatobiliary Surgery
- Clinical Director of Transplant Services at NYP/CUIMC
- Edwin C. and Anne K. Weiskopf Professor of Surgical Oncology
- Executive Director of the Columbia Transplant Initiative
- Surgical Director, Liver and Gastrointestinal Transplantation
Hospital Affiliations
- NewYork-Presbyterian / Columbia University Irving Medical Center
- NewYork-Presbyterian / Weill Cornell Medical Center
- NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital
- NewYork-Presbyterian Komansky Children's Hospital
Awards & Honors
- 2007 Humanitarian of the Year, Consulate General of Israel in Miami
- 2009-2020 New York Magazine's Best Doctors
- 2014 Nobility in Science Award, Sarcoma Foundation of Americas
- 2015 Global Alumni Fellow, Osaka University