The Brown Cancer Center and the University of Louisville have named Dr. Kelly McMasters the 2014 Clinician of the Year. He will be honored at the Julep Ball on Friday, May 2, at the KFC Yum! Center. Dr. McMasters is the Ben A. Reid, Sr., M.D., Professor and Chair of the Hiram C. Polk, Jr., M.D., Department of Surgery in the School of Medicine at UofL.

McMasters leads the Department of Surgery with more than 80 full-time faculty members in general surgery, transplant surgery, pediatric surgery, plastic and reconstructive surgery, surgical oncology, vascular and endovascular therapeutics and hand surgery. The department also has three residency and six fellowship programs with more than 60 surgical trainees each year.

It is his own work as a surgeon, however, that has made him Clinician of the Year. Dr. McMasters puts his life's work succinctly: We cut out cancer. His passion for and dedication to that task are readily apparent.

Although highly trained with years of experience in the complex field of surgical oncology, McMasters sees his role in simple, direct terms: making people's lives better. We are able to cure the majority of patients by performing surgery, he says, but those few who aren't cured still see an improvement in the quality of their lives. And, when the cancer isn't curable, I can help people leave this world with grace and dignity. That is just as important.

He discovered his vocation early. In my surgical training, I never saw anyone more appreciative than patients with cancer. It is incredibly rewarding to have that impact. Our patients and their families are so appreciative of our skill as well as our honesty and straightforwardness with them.

You can't sugarcoat cancer, and they appreciate that.

A researcher and educator as well as clinician and department chair, McMasters sees his role as clinician as the most rewarding. This field is full of opportunities , to do research, to teach, to provide care, but at the end of the day, there is just something good about cutting someone's cancer out. It's that simple.

A native of New Jersey, McMasters came to UofL after graduating with his M.D. degree from the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School at Rutgers University and his Ph.D. in cell and developmental biology from Rutgers. He was drawn to UofL by the then chair of surgery, Dr. Hiram C. Polk Jr.

I met Dr. Polk during my residency interviews and never wanted to go anywhere else, he says. This department is a top 20 surgical department because of Dr. Polk and a great place to do all the things I wanted to do.

The married father of three, wife Beth is an attorney and the couple has three sons, Austin, Steven and Owen, says the difference in the quality of care provided by UofL is rooted in its multidisciplinary aspect.

It does matter where you go for your cancer care, and the best care is multidisciplinary care, McMasters says. The reason the James Graham Brown Cancer Center is successful is because we have multidisciplinary teams in both clinical care and research made up of the best people not only from this country but from around the world. So whenever we care for patients, we have the best minds, coming from all disciplines, working together. It is what sets us apart.

He cites the leadership of Brown Cancer Center Director, Donald Miller, M.D., Ph.D., and deputy director Jason Chesney, M.D., Ph.D., as crucial to that success. Each week, we have had our multidisciplinary melanoma clinic. It is a wonderful collaboration and partnership that brings about the absolute best care for our patients.

Continuing that high caliber work requires continued investment, he adds. Our work doesn't come easy in this day when funding is limited in every way. If we want to be able to continue to recruit and retain the best and brightest clinicians, scientists, and trainees, the ongoing investment of the people in our community is crucial. We need it and are grateful for it.