Tomoaki Kato, MD
Locations and Appointments
ColumbiaDoctors - Midtown
CUIMC/NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital
ColumbiaDoctors - 136-20 38th Avenue
CUIMC/Presbyterian Hospital and Vanderbilt Clinic
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Insurances Accepted
Please contact the doctor's office to verify that your insurance is accepted.
- AETNA
- Affinity Health Plan
- CIGNA
- Emblem/GHI
- Emblem/Hip
- Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield Healthplus
- Empire Blue Cross/Blue Shield
- Fidelis Care
- Healthfirst
- Local 1199
- Magnacare (National)
- Medicare
- Multiplan
- MVP Health Care
- RiverSpring
- UnitedHealthcare
- VNSNY CHOICE
- WellCare
- World Trade Center Health Plan
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
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
Fellowship: University of Miami Hospital
Medical School: Osaka University, Japan
Residency: Itami City Hospital, Hyogo, Japan
Languages
- Japanese
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 Komansky Children's Hospital
NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital
Education
- Medical School: Osaka University, Japan
- Fellowship: University of Miami Hospital
- Residency: Itami City Hospital, Hyogo, Japan
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
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
Languages Spoken
- Japanese