September 30th, 2015 Brigham & Women’s Surgery Grand Rounds
October 1st, 2015 MGH Surgery grand rounds.
Dr. John Tarpley attended undergraduate and medical school at Vanderbilt and trained in surgery at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. He spent two years at the NCI, Surgery Branch during residency. Tarpley is a “general general” surgeon whose first career (1978-1993) was in a tertiary care mission hospital in Ogbomoso, Nigeria, where he directed the training for general practice house officers and helped establish a nursing school. He served several years at the Loch Raven VA in Baltimore and on the Johns Hopkins faculty. He joined the Vanderbilt University Dept. of Surgery and the Nashville VA in 1993 as Associate Chief, Surgical Service. He directed the Vanderbilt General Surgery Residency program as Program Director from 1995 to 2014. A professor of surgery and anesthesiology, he is also affiliated faculty in the Vanderbilt Institute for Global Health and established the first ACGME-approved international rotation for surgery residents. He has co-taught medical school electives in global health, spirituality in medicine, and history of medicine. He has received a number of teaching awards locally and nationally. He is a member of the American College of Surgeons, the West African College of Surgeons, the American Surgical Association, and others. Surgical education, global health, the history of medicine, spirituality in medicine, and clinical surgery especially in the treatment of patients with hernias or esophageal cancer are major areas of interest.
