Saleem Islam, MD, MPH

Saleem Islam, M.D., M.P.H., is a professor of surgery and pediatrics in the University of Florida’s College of Medicine. He lead the division of Pediatric Surgery from 2015-2022 as the Chief, and was the program director of the pediatric surgery fellowship program from 2009-2019, and associate director from 2019-2022 in the department of surgery at UF. Dr. Islam earned his medical degree from Aga Khan University in Karachi, Pakistan in 1992 and completed his general surgery residency at the University of Massachusetts, where he also became chief resident. He also served as a research fellow in the pediatric surgery laboratory at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School from 1996-1998 and went on to a clinical pediatric surgery fellowship at the University of Michigan from 2001- 2003. Dr. Islam joined the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, MS as an assistant professor of surgery and assistant professor of pediatrics in 2003. He became medical director of the extracorporeal life support program and director of the 3rd year medical student clerkship in surgery, and also earned a master’s degree in public health (MPH) from the University of Massachusetts in 2006.  He joined UF’s College of Medicine in 2007.He is a currently an Advanced Trauma Life Support Instructor for the American College of Surgeons and has given more than 200 national and international presentations and has published more than 160 peer-reviewed publications during his career. Dr. Islam is board-certified in general surgery and pediatric surgery by the American Board of Surgery and is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons and American Academy of Pediatrics, where he is on the Executive Committee of the Section on Surgery. He also is a member of the International Pediatric Endosurgery Group, the Association of Academic Surgeons and the American Pediatric Surgical Association. In addition, he was elected as a member of the Society of University Surgeons in 2015, and elected to the prestigious American Surgical Association in 2022.Dr. Islam’s clinical research interests include pediatric gastrointestinal motility disorders, specifically gastroparesis. For treatment of intractable gastroparesis, UF has implanted permanent gastric electrical stimulation devices in 175 children and temporary gastric electrical stimulation devices in more than 250 children, making UFHealth the highest volume center for managing these complex patients in the world. He has also performed successful separation of 4 sets of Conjoined Twins over the past 6 years. Dr. Islam’s research focuses on performing outcomes-based research pertinent to all aspects of pediatric surgery as he works to develop models of care that will allow for improved clinical care in the future. He has involved UF in multiple research consortia to better understand outcomes nationally and effect change in management strategies. In addition, he is very passionate about equitable care for children in Florida, the United States, as well as Globally – with research focusing on inequity and variability in care based on race or gender or poverty.