Dr. Nahel Elias is an abdominal transplant surgeon dedicated to kidney, liver, and pancreas recipients' care. He attended the University of Damascus, Syria (MD 1994), completed Transplant Research Fellowship at McGill (Montreal, Canada), General Surgery residency in Michigan '97-'02, and the MGH Multi-Organ abdominal Transplant Surgery fellowship '02-'04, then joined MGH Transplant Surgery staff. Since then, Dr. Elias has developed protocols supporting solutions to organ shortage; including ICUs, operating room, and New England Organ Bank collaboration advancing donation programs at regional hospitals. He has evolved the transplant database, and chairs the MGH Transplant Center Quality Assessment and Performance Improvement since 2008.

In 2012 Dr. Elias became Surgical Director of Kidney Transplantation, and the program has progressed greatly under his leadership. Its volume has surpassed other regional programs and its results improved further. It continues to improve and address patient's needs and satisfaction.

Additional to performing and caring for liver and kidney transplant, Dr. Elias also treats patients with liver cancer through the Cancer Center Multi-Disciplinary Liver Clinic since its inception, as a transplant surgeon and a hepatobiliary surgeon. His skills in surgical care provide many options to his patients with liver disease, including transplantation, as well as other hepatobiliary and portal hypertension procedures.

Dr. Elias teaches medical students, residents, and fellows, and directs a Harvard Medical School transplant surgery course. He also speaks frequently locally, nationally, and internationally about the transplantation research projects he leads on Immunosuppression and utilization of Hepatitis C and HIV organs for transplantation, and has contributed to the medical literature. He has won many awards and is a member of many Surgical and transplant societies.