Washington, DC, (November 4, 2024) — Cleveland, OH-based facial plastic and reconstructive surgeon Patrick J. Byrne, MD, MBA, is the new President of The American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (AAFPRS). Dr. Byrne formally assumed this role during the 2024 AAFPRS Annual Business Meeting in New Orleans, LA, on October 26, 2024. He is serving as AAFPRS president during the 2024-2025 term year.
The AAFPRS is the world's largest specialty association for facial plastic and reconstructive surgery. The organization seeks to educate medical professionals, the government, and the general public about facial plastic and reconstructive surgery as a specialty that requires intensive training and competence, embodies high ethical standards, artistic ideals, a commitment to humanitarian service, and a desire to enhance the quality of human life.
Dr. Byrne is internationally recognized as a facial plastic and reconstructive surgeon, with focuses on microsurgical facial reconstruction, skin cancer management, and facial aesthetic surgery.
“I am honored to lead this Academy, which has a longstanding history of collaboratively pursuing clinical excellence on behalf of patients across the nation and the world. Facial Plastic Surgeons are extremely specialized, focusing exclusively on plastic surgery of the face, head and neck. At the same time, the field has enormous breadth across reconstructive and aesthetic interventions, from birth into the elder years. This is reflected in the ways our members choose to focus their own practices, both in private and academic settings.”
Dr. Byrne is the Enterprise Chief of the Cleveland Clinic Integrated Surgical Institute and Chair of the Head and Neck Surgery Department at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. In this role, Dr. Byrne leads Cleveland Clinic’s surgical specialty departments efforts to be the world leader in patient care, outcomes, education, safety, innovation and research. He is also a Professor at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine as well as at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, MD.
Previously, Dr. Byrne served as the Director of the Division of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery in the Department of Otolaryngology/Head and Neck Surgery at The Johns Hopkins Hospital. While there, he directed the Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Fellowship program and co-directed the Johns Hopkins Face Transplant Program. Dr. Byrne continues to serve as the co-Director of the Randolph B. Capone Cleft and Palate Program at Greater Baltimore Medical Center.
He graduated from the University of California-San Diego School of Medicine. He completed a surgical internship at the University of California-San Francisco and an otolaryngology/head and neck surgery residency at the UC San Diego School of Medicine. Dr. Byrne completed a fellowship in facial plastic and reconstructive surgery at the University of Minnesota Medical School /Children's Minnesota and a fellowship in Health Care Management at the Advisory Board Company in Washington, DC. He earned his MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Dr. Byrne has founded several successful healthcare focused start up companies, and has devoted his free time to pro bono international volunteer surgery for his entire career.
Outgoing AAFPRS president Sherard A. Tatum, MD, a New York-based international facial plastic and reconstructive surgeon, welcomes Dr. Byrne. “Dr. Byrne’s unparalleled expertise with complex reconstructive surgery of the face, head and neck, including microsurgical reconstruction and his groundbreaking work treating patients with facial paralysis and performing complex facial reanimation surgery in adults and children, sets a high bar for our specialty,” he says. “We are thrilled to have him and look forward to his leadership that will surely help to enhance the Academy over the coming year. Congratulations, Dr. Byrne, and welcome aboard!”
“Dr. Byrne brings to the AAFPRS Board a highly beneficial combination of profound facial plastic and reconstructive surgery expertise and truly exceptional business acumen,” shares AAFPRS executive vice president & CEO, Steve Jurich. “Without question, his astute ability to strategically integrate the emerging opportunities of our field with the unique needs of our organization will simultaneously advance both. We are very fortunate to have Dr. Byrne in the key leadership role of AAFPRS President over the next year!”