Joseph E. Losee, MD

  • Executive Vice Chair, Department of Plastic Surgery
  • Associate Dean of Faculty, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
  • Division Chief, Pediatric Plastic Surgery

Losee is the Dr. Ross H. Musgrave Endowed Chair of Pediatric Plastic Surgery and Executive Vice Chair of the Department of Plastic Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.  He serves as the Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs, and an Advisory Dean of Students at the School of Medicine. He is the Co-Chair of the UPMC Health System Physician Wellness Initiative.  Since his arrival to Pitt in 2003, he has remained Chief of the Division of Pediatric Plastic Surgery at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC.  As well, Losee was the Vice-Chair of the Pennsylvania State Board of Medicine.

Losee graduated AOA from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry in 1994.  He completed a residency in Plastic Surgery at the University of Rochester and a fellowship in Craniofacial Surgery at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania.  He is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons and the American Academy of Pediatrics. 

For over a decade, he was the Program Director for the Plastic Surgery Residency Training Program in Pittsburgh.  He currently serves on the ACGME Plastic Surgery Residency Review Committee (RRC).  He assembled a coalition and spearheaded the only innovative experimental Competency Based GME training program in the United States.  

Losee sat on the American Board of Plastic Surgery for seven years, serving as Chair of the Board during his final year (2018-2019). He is President of Plastic Surgery’s umbrella National Society, the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (2020-2021).  He is Past-President of the: American Council of Academic Plastic Surgeons, American Society of Craniofacial Surgeons, Northeastern Society of Plastic Surgeons, Robert H. Ivy Society, Ohio Valley Society of Plastic Surgeons, and the American Society of Pediatric Plastic Surgery.  He serves on numerous Boards of Directors of national societies within Academic Plastic Surgery, including the American Society of Plastic Surgery and the American Society of Maxillofacial Surgery.  

He has edited 6 textbooks including, “Comprehensive Cleft Care”, the authoritative text on Cleft Surgery in its second edition, and “Pediatric Plastic Surgery”, of the multi-volume “Plastic Surgery” text.  Dr. Losee has authored over 200 peer-reviewed articles and 40 book chapters.  His has performed federally funded research (AFIRM DOD) on bone and suture regulation, as well as skull defects in infants; and, he has been Co-PI of an NIH RO1 investigating the treatment of ear disease in cleft palate patients.  He has given over 110 invited lectures and has been a visiting professor at over 40 national and international universities.