Heather Yeo, MD, MHS, is Associate Professor of Surgery and Associate Professor of Population Health Sciences at Weill Cornell Medical College and Associate Attending Surgeon at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center. She is board-certified in general surgery, colon and rectal surgery, and complex general surgical oncology. Dr. Yeo specializes in the comprehensive care of colorectal cancer patients as well as those patients with benign colorectal disease.

Click here to see Dr. Yeo's CBS-TV interview on new studying showing aspirin can reduce risk of GI and colon cancer.

Click here to see Dr. Yeo talk about colorectal cancer in older adults.

Click here to hear Dr. Yeo talk about health services research.

Because of her specialized training as a surgical oncologist, Dr. Yeo, is involved with her cancer patients throughout the course of their therapy and will help them to understand all of their treatment options. She works with a world renowned group of multidisciplinary specialists to help promote a multifaceted treatment plan for her patients, including radiation oncologists, medical oncologists, radiologists, pathologists, gastroenterologists, and interventional radiologists. 

Dr. Yeo has expertise in minimal access techniques, including laparoscopic, needlescopic, colonoscopic-assisted and robotic surgery. In addition, she has special interests in sphincter preserving surgery (helping rectal cancer patients avoid a permanent ostomy), maintaining fertility in cancer patients, and improving quality of life and bowel function after rectal surgery. Most recently, Dr. Yeo has adopted use of the endoluminal surgical platform, commonly known as the DiLumen, allowing some complex procedures to be accomplished using an endoscope and without external incisions.

Dr. Yeo’s clinical research focuses on the whole patient and improving the surgical experience. She has studied patient quality of life and outcome measures and believes incorporating those factors into her treatment decisions is very important.

Dr. Yeo has written extensively and published in many major journals, including the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), Annals of Surgery, and the Journal of the American College of Surgeons. 

Dr. Yeo completed her general surgical residency at Yale New Haven Hospital , and her Surgical Oncology fellowship at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and her fellowship in Colon and Rectal Surgery at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center. She has a Masters in Health Service Research from Yale University.

Dr. Yeo is actively involved in many national Surgical and Oncologic Societies, including the American College of Surgeons, Society of Surgical Oncologists, American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons, Association of Women Surgeons, and Association of Academic Surgery.