Charles M. Vollmer Jr.

Charles M. Vollmer Jr., MD is Professor of Surgery and Chief of the Division of Gastrointestinal Surgery at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, where he directs one of North America's highest-volume pancreatic surgery programs. He is internationally recognized for pioneering work on optimizing outcomes of the Whipple procedure (pancreaticoduodenectomy) and for developing standardized risk stratification systems that have become benchmarks for global pancreatic surgical practice. Dr. Vollmer created the Fistula Risk Score (FRS), a validated preoperative tool used worldwide to predict postoperative pancreatic fistula after distal pancreatectomy and pancreaticoduodenectomy. This work, published in the Annals of Surgery and JAMA Surgery, has driven the adoption of individualized surgical technique selection and intraoperative decision-making to reduce the most feared complication in pancreatic surgery. He has also made foundational contributions to the adoption of minimally invasive distal pancreatectomy, demonstrating equivalent oncologic outcomes with shorter hospital stays and reduced morbidity compared with open approaches. His research program encompasses the biology of pancreatic anastomotic failure, robotic-assisted pancreatectomy, and population-level quality improvement across pancreatic surgery centers. Dr. Vollmer has trained numerous hepatopancreatic-biliary (HPB) surgeons and is a past president of the Americas Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Association (AHPBA). His advocacy for standardized reporting of pancreatic surgical complications has transformed how outcomes are measured and compared across international centers.