Dr. Talia Baker, MD

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Get to know Hepatobiliary and Liver Transplant Surgeon Dr. Talia Baker, who serves patients in Chicago, Illinois.

Dr. Baker is a hepatobiliary and liver transplant surgeon & a nationally renowned expert in living donor liver transplantation. In addition to transplantation, she provides care for a full spectrum of liver issues, including liver tumors and liver cancer. In practice since 2003, she works closely with physicians in the University of Chicago Medicine Comprehensive Cancer Center to provide multidisciplinary approaches to personalized care for hepatobiliary malignancies.

The University of Chicago Medicine Comprehensive Cancer Center is internationally recognized as a leader in cancer care, research, and education. It is affiliated with the University of Chicago, where Dr. Baker serves as an Associate Professor of Surgery within the Department of Surgery.

Among her various roles in the medical field, she is the Surgical Director of the Liver Tumor Program, the Director of the Living Donor Liver Transplant Program, as well as the Surgical Director and Program Director of the Liver Transplant Program. 

A 1993 graduate of the Tufts University School of Medicine, Dr. Baker went on to complete her internship and residency at New York-Presbyterian Hospital. This was followed by a fellowship at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

The doctor is board-certified in surgery by the American Board of Surgery, an independent, non-profit organization located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, founded for the purpose of certifying surgeons who have met a defined standard of education, training, and knowledge.

An active researcher, Dr. Baker’s scholarly work focuses on liver transplant topics such as downstaging complex hepatobiliary tumors to resectability and the ethical implications of using social media for organ donation opportunities. She was an invited participant at the 2016 White House summit to reduce the organ waiting list and facilitate research breakthroughs. She was one of the physicians leaders of the transplant care team that made history in December 2018 after performing two triple-organ transplants within 27 hours, replacing the failing hearts, livers, and kidneys of 29-year-olds Sarah McPharlin and Daru Smith.

In addition to being a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons (FACS), she is a member of the American Society of Transplantation, the Association for Academic Surgery, the Central Surgical Society, the American Society of Transplant Surgeons, and the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases.

Hepatobiliary surgery is surgery that treats the liver, bile duct and pancreas. Liver transplantation or hepatic transplantation is the replacement of a diseased liver with the healthy liver from another person. A hepatobiliary and liver transplant surgeon is an experienced healthcare professional in the aforementioned areas. 

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