Patrick J. O’Hara, MD
#24: 2000-2001
Dr. Patrick J. O’Hara has been a Staff Surgeon in the Department of Vascular Surgery at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation since 1979. He was elected President of the Midwestern Vascular Surgical Society after serving as its Secretary from 1997 to 2000.
Dr. O’Hara was born in Youngstown, Ohio, where he completed his secondary education with honors in 1965. He received his A.B. (magna cum laude) and M.D. (cum laude) degrees simultaneously in 1971 after completing Boston University’s Six-Year Program in Liberal Arts and Medicine. During this period, he was initiated into the Phi Beta Kappa and Alpha Omega Alpha honor societies. While at the Boston University School of Medicine, he also earned the Alumni Award and was enrolled into the Begg Honor Society. After completing a surgical internship and the first year of surgical residency at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston in 1973, Dr. O’Hara was inducted as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Public Health Service, performing general and orthopedic surgery while stationed in Norfolk, Virginia.
Upon discharge, Dr. O’Hara finished the general surgical residency at the Massachusetts General Hospital in 1978. In 1979, under the direction of the late R. Clement Darling, Jr., M.D., he completed the Clinical and Research Fellowship in Vascular Surgery at the Massachusetts General Hospital and the Harvard Medical School. Dr. O’Hara was subsequently recruited to the Department of Vascular Surgery at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation in 1979 by Edwin G. Beven, M.D., and was later appointed Associate Professor of Surgery at the Ohio State College of Medicine in 1993. He was later appointed Professor of Surgery at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University in 2004.
Certified in General and Vascular Surgery, Dr. O’Hara’s primary interest is arterial surgery, principally complex aortic and cerebrovascular reconstruction. He has been the author or co-author of numerous publications on a wide variety of vascular surgical topics and has made a surgical motion picture. Dr. O’Hara is a member of many medical and academic societies, including the Society for Vascular Surgery, the International Society for Cardiovascular Surgery, the Peripheral Vascular Surgery Society, the Central Surgical Association, and the American College of Surgeons. He is a former Treasurer, Secretary, and President of the Cleveland Vascular Society and was a member of the Board of Directors of the Society for Vascular Surgery. He is currently a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Vascular Surgery and the Vascular Surgery Advisory Council of the American College of Surgeons.
Dr. O’Hara is an instrument-rated private pilot and has logged more than 1,000 hours. He also enjoys skiing, sailing, and woodworking. His greatest joys, however, are his wife, Judy, whom he persuaded to marry him in 1970, and their three adult children, Mike, Kate, and Tim.
