John D. Christein, MD, has accepted an appointment as assistant professor of surgery in the section of gastrointestinal surgery. Dr. Christein graduated from Augustana College, Rock Island, Illinois, and received his medical degree from Rush Medical College in Chicago. He completed residency training at the Rush University/Cook County Hospital Surgical Residency Program, where he served as chief administrative resident and was named chief resident of the year. He subsequently completed an advanced gastrointestinal surgery fellowship at the Mayo Clinic, in Rochester, Minnesota. While at Mayo, he focused mainly on pancreatic and liver resection for both benign and malignant disease.

A diplomate of the American Board of Surgery, he has published on pancreatic and liver disease. His research interests focus on pancreatic malignancy, acute and chronic pancreatitis, pancreatic cystic neoplasms, and malignancy or cystic lesions of the biliary tree. Dr. Christein's clinical interests include operative therapy for acute and chronic pancreatitis, pancreatic and biliary malignancy, laparoscopic pancreatic cystic neoplasm resection, laparoscopic and open liver resection, and biliary reconstruction after iatrogenic injury.

Dr. Christein is working in collaboration with the Divisions of Transplant Surgery and Gastroenterology, as well as the Pain Clinic, in development of the Human Islet Auto-transplant Program. Patients with severe chronic pancreatitis undergo thorough evaluation and total pancreatectomy with islet cell auto-transplantation. This state-of-the-art therapy is only offered at two other centers in the United States, neither of which is in the South. Dr. Christein is accepting patients at The Kirklin Clinic®. He can be reached at 996-4958 or via e–mail at jdc16@uab.edu.