Bishwajit Bhattacharya, MD, is a general surgeon who specializes in emergency general surgery, trauma and critical care. Working with patients in Yale New Haven Hospital’s emergency department and Level 1 Trauma Center, he treats a wide variety of problems, from such serious diseases as acute appendicitis to internal bleeding sustained in car accidents and other serious traumas.
As a trauma surgeon, Dr. Bhattacharya is a member of a team of surgeons and specialists providing care 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, to respond immediately to all major trauma codes and provide comprehensive, continuous care and support from admission to discharge. He is skilled in a variety of types of surgeries and will use minimally invasive approaches, robotic surgery or traditional open approaches, depending on the situation. He often treats patients who are referred to Yale from regional hospitals in other parts of Connecticut.
Dr. Bhattacharya says he became interested in medicine partly because of his grandfather, who practiced medicine in rural India before it became independent from Great Britain. Then, when Dr. Bhattacharya was in high school, his father died of brain cancer, which contributed to his decision to go to medical school. As a trauma surgeon, he has learned to give his patients as much information as possible about their case, including how he will treat it and any choices they may have in their care. “You need to keep things simple, avoid jargon and always be honest,” he says.
An assistant professor of trauma surgery, Dr. Bhattacharya has research interests in improving care and survival in trauma and critical care settings.
