Heather Wachtel

Section Chief of Endocrine Surgery, Perelman School of Medicine

Heather Wachtel, MD, MSTR is an Innovation Faculty member at the Penn Center for Cancer Care Innovation (PC3I), Associate Professor of Surgery and the Chief of the Section of Endocrine Surgery at the Perelman School of Medicine. Clinically, Dr. Wachtel specializes in the treatment of hormonally active and malignant thyroid, parathyroid and adrenal tumors. Dr. Wachtel’s NIH funded translational research utilizes genomic informatics and imaging approaches to study endocrine and neuroendocrine tumors with the goal of developing novel diagnostic and therapeutic approaches. Her research has been recognized by awards from the American Cancer Society, the American Surgical Association, the American Association of Endocrine Surgeons, and the Society of Surgical Oncology.

Dr. Wachtel graduated from Harvard University and received her MD from the Yale School of Medicine. She completed General Surgery residency training at the University of Pennsylvania and fellowship training in Endocrine Surgery at the Massachusetts General Hospital of Harvard Medical School. She completed her Master of Science in Translational Research at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Wachtel serves as the Associate Program Director for the General Surgery Residency Program, and Director of the Endocrine Disease Team of the Abramson Cancer Center.