William Edward Fisher, MD, FACS

Dr. William E. Fisher is Professor and Vice-Chair for Clinical Affairs, Department of Surgery and the George L. Jordan, M.D. Chair in General Surgery at Baylor College of Medicine. Dr. Fisher also serves as Director of the Elkins Pancreas Center at BCM; and is Vice President, Medical Staff and Chief of the Surgery Service Line at Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center.

An internationally-known leader in pancreatic surgery, Dr. Fisher has focused entirely on surgery for pancreatic tumors and cysts in his practice for over 20 years and has extensive experience in advanced, minimally-invasive robotic pancreas surgery. 

Dr. Fisher’s professional interests include: pancreaticoduodenectomy (Whipple procedure); minimally invasive/laparoscopic/robotic pancreatic surgery; pancreas cancer; distal and central pancreatectomy; pancreas resection; surgical oncology; common bile duct resection; Puestow procedure; Frey procedure; and laparoscopic pancreatectomy.

Dr. Fisher has served as PI of two NIH-funded multicenter randomized clinical trials that generated practice-changing impact on the use of drains during pancreatectomy, and the subsequent development of a multicenter pancreatic-surgery-outcomes consortium. His basic science lab has studied the influence of gastrointestinal hormones on pancreatic cancer growth, the relationship between diabetes and pancreatic cancer, and genomic analysis of pancreatic cancer, resulting in over 160 peer-reviewed publications.  

Having served as principal investigator on more than 15 clinical trials for patients with pancreatic cancer, Dr. Fisher is currently PI at BCM for the NIH Consortium to Study Chronic Pancreatitis, Diabetes and Pancreatic Cancer. 

Dr. Fisher received a B.A. from Wittenberg University and earned his medical degree from the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine.  He held a research fellowship and completed his residency at The Ohio State University.

Among his numerous honors and awards, Dr. Fisher has been recognized as one of America’s Top Doctors for Cancer (Castle Connolly Medical Ltd.), Top 1% of Doctors in the U.S. (U.S. News and World Report), and “Texas Super Doctor” (Texas Monthly). He is also the recipient of the Master Clinician Award for Excellence in Patient Care from BCM and has twice received the DeBakey Distinguished Service Award from the Michael E. DeBakey Department of Surgery at BCM.