Tamar H. Taddei, MD

Tamar H. Taddei, MD, cares for patients with digestive and liver diseases, including transplant recipients and patients with liver cancer. “As a clinician, it is extremely gratifying to be able to make a difference in an individual's life,” she says. In addition to managing her own clinical practice, Dr. Taddei directs liver cancer roundtable meetings, where practitioners take a team-based approach to providing the best care strategy at Smilow Cancer Hospital at Yale New Haven, and at the VA Connecticut Healthcare System in West Haven.

A professor of medicine (digestive diseases) at Yale School of Medicine and Chief of Gastroenterology at VA Connecticut Healthcare System, Dr. Taddei focuses her research on improving outcomes for patients with liver ailments and on early detection of liver tumors. “The field is interesting, dynamic and challenging,” she says. “The liver is an amazing organ.”

She is excited by effective drugs for hepatitis C which have cured many patients and reduced the risk of cirrhosis and liver cancer, but she is concerned with the growing incidence of fatty liver. “We need to focus on wellness—healthy diet and exercise—before we become ill,” she says.