Dr. Edwin Onkendi is an Associate Professor of Surgery at TTUHSC. He is a minimally invasive gastrointestinal and Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary (HPB) surgeon. He successfully build the first high volume HPB surgery program in this region, with results that are better than the national average. This has now expanded to a full fledged surgical oncology program covering a wider arrange of surgical treatments for HPB and non-HPB malignancies. This has ensured patients with liver and pancreatic cancer and other cancers can get state-of-the-art treatment right here at home, instead of having to travel to Dallas or Houston. He is also the section chief for the hepato-biliary and pancreas section of the division of surgical oncology at TTUHSC. He is also medical director of the NPF pancreas cancer center of excellence, at the University Medical Center (UMC) Cancer Center. He is actively involved in resident and medical student education. He is currently serving as the Director of the TTUHSC surgery Resident Robotics training.
Dr. Onkendi has won several awards for clinical performance and academic achievement including prestigious Doctor of Distinction/Lubbock Top Doc for which he was featured in the 2019 Lubbock Magazine, as well as the TTUHSC Unsung Hero Award from the Department of Surgery.
Nationally, he serves on the Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Committee of the Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons (SAGES), where he is involved in development of the liver and pancreas surgery Mastery training Pathway Curriculums as well as SAGES-HPB surgery clinical practice guidelines. He is currently serving as an editor of the upcoming SAGES biliary manual.
Dr. Onkendi has over 40 peer-reviewed publications and 5 book chapters and over 30 national and international presentations and invited lectures.
He is active in research and his research interests include robotic liver and pancreas surgery, pancreas cancer, gallbladder cancer and chronic pancreatitis. He is the lead PI for the TTUHSC Site for the North American Minimally Invasive Pancreatic Surgery (AMIPS) Registry and the North American Minimally Invasive Liver Resection (AMILES) Registry.
Interests
- Oncology
- Surgery