Koltun named Hershey Medical Center’s October Physician of the Month

Hershey Medical Center awarded its Physician of the Month for October to Dr. Walter Koltun, chief of the Division of Colon and Rectal Surgery and Peter and Marshia Carlino chair in Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) in the Department of Surgery.

Koltun is a nationally recognized surgeon, with patients traveling long distances to seek his expert care at Hershey Medical Center’s Carlino Family Inflammatory Bowel Center. His nominators say his inclusive leadership style creates an atmosphere that values team members’ opinions and contributions. His department includes among its shared priorities quality patient outcomes and organized services.

Koltun holds weekly meetings to discuss the care of both current and incoming patients. Team members say these meetings provide opportunities for collaboration, high-level planning and education.

Koltun founded the division of colon and rectal surgery at Hershey Medical Center in 2000, simultaneously establishing what has become the nation’s largest inflammatory bowel and colorectal diseases biobank that uses human specimens obtained at surgery to study diseases affecting the gastrointestinal tract. He is past president of both the Pennsylvania Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons and the ASCRS Research Foundation. In 2015, he received the Hershey Medical Center Steven and Sharon Baron Leadership Award.

He joined Hershey Medical Center in July 1990. He has held several academic and hospital appointments, including medical director of the Hershey Medical Center Surgery Specialties Clinic, director and founder of the Carlino IBD Center, associate chair of research for the Hershey Medical Center Department of Surgery and former director of surgical clinics at Hershey Medical Center. Koltun served as editor-in-chief of “Operative Techniques in General Surgery” from 2005 to 2008 and associate editor or reviewer for more than 15 journals. He has more than 180 peer review publications to his name.

To nominate a colleague for Physician of the Month, visit the PAWS UP! Rewards and Recognition Program on the Infonet.

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