Diego Mauricio Avella Patino, MD

Dr. Avella performs the majority of his surgical operations robotically using cutting-edge technologies and clinical protocols to achieve the most optimal outcomes for his patients with benign and malignant disease of the lung, esophagus, pleura, thymus and mediastinum, chest wall, diaphragm, and airways. Dr. Avella performs segmentectomy, lobectomies, wedge resections, and pneumonectomies for lung cancer. He also concentrates his clinical practice on robotic esophagectomies for esophageal cancer and benign diseases of the esophagus and robotic thymectomies for thymic cancer (thymoma and thymic carcinoma) and myasthenia gravis. Dr. Avella also performs robotic surgical treatment for: benign diseases of the esophagus and diaphragm (diaphragmatic and hiatal hernias, achalasia, diaphragmatic eventration, and gastroesophageal reflux), tumors of the chest wall (chondrosarcoma, osteosarcoma), and benign and malignant diseases of the pleura (empyema, pneumothorax, mesothelioma). Dr. Avella is leading the initiative for early lung cancer detection and lung cancer screening at the University of Miami.

Immunotherapy for patients with lung cancer; genetic and molecular aspects of the tumor immune response; surgical outcomes after robotic and minimally invasive surgery; lung cancer resection to preserve lung parenchyma; outcomes and trends in surgery for esophageal cancer.     
 

National cancer Institute RO1. Site Investigator. Development and 
Implementation of the Remote Telehealth User-Reported Cancer 
Surveillance (RETURNS) Program for Lung Cancer. Chicago, IL. (2024)

Respiratory Health Association. Junior investigator
Improving Immunotherapy for Lung Cancer. Chicago, IL. (2023)                          

American Cancer Society – Institutional Research Grant
Dissecting the Anti-Tumor Immune Response in a PDX Model for lung cancer. Chicago, IL. (2022)

Professionalism/Humanism in Surgery Award                             
Penn State University College of Medicine, Department of Surgery
Hershey, PA (2014)

Closing Keynote Speaker “Beyond the Clinic”                              
Missouri M1 Conference, Invited by University of Missouri Medical School
Columbia, MO. (2019)

Director Hispanic Program for Thoracic Diseases
Northwestern University Health    
Chicago, IL (2013)

Society of University Surgeons Junior Faculty Research Award                    
Society of University Surgeons. Finalist.
Los Angeles, CA (2020)

American College of Surgeons Faculty Research Fellowship                      
American College of Surgeons. Alternate. 
San Francisco, CA (2019)

Joel J. Roslyn Faculty Research Award                                  
Association for Academic Surgery. Finalist.
Houston, TX (2019) 

NorthShore University Health System Fellowship Travel Grant                       
NorthShore University Health System
Evanston, IL (2015)

Intuitive Surgical Robotics Fellowship Recipient                                      
AATS Graham Foundation
Atlanta, GA. (2015)

AATS Critical Care Scholarship                                                
AATS Graham Foundation
Washington, D.C. (2014)

Top 24 Papers, Travel Award                                      
23rd Annual SSAT Residents and Fellows Research Conference
Digestive Diseases Week 
San Diego, CA (2008)

Best Peer Review Paper                                     
International Society of Gastrointestinal Oncology (ISGIO) 
Philadelphia, PA. (2007)

El Bosque Medical Honor Society Award: Top 10 Senior Medical Students     
Universidad El Bosque School of Medicine 
Bogotá, Colombia. (2000)

Dr. Avella received his medical degree from the Universidad El Bosque in Bogota, Colombia, and subsequently spent four years as a postdoctoral fellow investigating the immunology of cancer at a National Cancer Institute funded laboratory at Penn State University College of Medicine. After finishing his postdoctoral fellowship, Dr. Avella completed his residency in General Surgery at Penn State. Following his residency, he completed a fellowship in Cardiothoracic Surgery at the University of Chicago and an additional fellowship in Lung Transplantation and ECMO at the University of Toronto. Before joining the University of Miami, Dr. Avella was an Assistant Professor of Surgery at Northwestern University in Chicago where his clinical practice concentrated on thoracic and lung transplant surgeries. Dr. Avella also led a laboratory devoted to the investigation of the immune response to human lung cancer and development of strategies to improve cancer immunotherapy.