Conor P. Delaney

Conor P. Delaney MD, MCh, PhD, FRCSI, FACS, FASCRS, FRCSI (Hon.) is an Irish-American colorectal surgeon, CEO and President of the Cleveland Clinic Florida, the Robert and Suzanne Tomsich Distinguished Chair in Healthcare Innovation, and Professor of Surgery at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine. He is a President of the American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons (ASCRS). He was previously Chairman of the Digestive Disease & Surgery Institute at the Cleveland Clinic. He is a Fellow and Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons and American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons.

Delaney's research contributions include various aspects of surgery, surgical cost-efficiency and surgical education, while his clinical research contributions include developing enhanced recovery pathways in minimally invasive laparoscopic colorectal surgery, carcinoma of the colon and rectum, Crohn's disease and Ulcerative colitis, sphincter-saving surgery, re-operative abdominal surgery, and colonoscopy.

Education Delaney earned his medical degree from the University College of Dublin School of Medicine, winning the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital gold medal in surgery. He became a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and earned his master's degree in surgery (MCh)

Career Delaney joined the Cleveland Clinic in 1999 on a fellowship to train with Dr. Victor Fazio.

In 2015, Delaney was asked to be the Chairman of the Digestive Disease and Surgery Institute at the Cleveland Clinic and held the Victor W. Fazio MD Endowed Chair in Colorectal Surgery. As Chairman of the Clinic's Digestive Disease and Surgery Institute, Delaney supervised acute care/trauma surgery, bariatric surgery, breast surgery, colorectal surgery, gastroenterology, general surgery, hepatology, hepato-pancreato-biliary surgery, nutrition, pediatric surgery, and transplant surgery. In 2019, the Digestive Disease and Surgery Institute was ranked #2 nationally by U.S. News & World Report for gastroenterology and GI surgery.

Delaney was listed as a possible successor to Dr. Toby Cosgrove as the CEO of the Cleveland Clinic in 2017. In 2020, Delaney was appointed as CEO and President of Cleveland Clinic Florida region. The region includes five hospital, a state-of-the-art research center, and numerous outpatient centers located in five counties across Southeast Florida.

Research Delaney has published more than 400 manuscripts in scientific journals, 15 books, and many book chapters related to surgical education, colon and rectal cancer surgery, minimally invasive laparoscopic colorectal surgery, re-operative abdominal surgery, peri-operative care for intestinal surgery, and inflammatory bowel disease and diverticulitis. He has been on the editorial board of many journals, including Diseases of the Colon & Rectum, World Journal of Surgery, The American Journal of Surgery, Techniques in Coloproctology, and Polish Journal of Surgery, and has acted as an invited reviewer for every major surgical journal. Delaney has delivered over 350 invited lectures internationally.

Clinical research Delaney's clinical contributions include work in minimally invasive laparoscopic colorectal surgery to enhance recovery, of which he has demonstrated associated short and long-term cost-savings. His other work includes patient quality of life, surgical education, procedures for carcinomas of the colon and rectum, sphincter-saving surgery, re-operative abdominal surgery, Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, and colonoscopy.

Delaney has developed various enhanced recovery pathways after surgery since an initial publication by his team on "Fast-track" surgery in 2001, which when combined with less-invasive surgery, have cut hospital stays for colorectal resection to two and a half days on average.

Cost-efficiency research Delaney has had a major focus on work relating to cost-efficiency and value in healthcare, as well as surgical quality, which led to his invention of an affordable quality metric called the HARM Score.

HARM Score Delaney developed the HARM Score, standing for HospitAl stay, Readmission, and Mortality, to accurately measure patient outcomes and quality of care inexpensively, as an alternative for hospitals not participating in the foremost National Surgical Quality improvement Program (NSQIP) because of expense and complexity. Using routinely captured data, the HARM Score decreased administrative costs associated with quality care improvement programs, while being almost universally applicable regardless of the size of the hospital. The HARM score has since been assessed and validated by others on bariatric patients, prompting the creation of the BAR-HARM score.

Innovation Patents Delaney holds five patents for medical devices, techniques, and processes.

Socrates Analytics, Inc. In 2012, Delaney founded a software company called Socrates Analytics, Inc. to help hospitals and physicians collect and analyze hospital billing, administrative and operating room data. Socrates automated the collection of information stored across a number of data systems to allow hospitals to capture entire episodes of patient care, integrating disparate hospital administrative software systems to facilitate reporting on operational metrics. He created the venture while at UH Case Medical Center, seeking to find what factors truly drove cost in the operating room and were associated with readmissions within 30 days of discharge. Delaney was quoted saying, "Socrates gives hospitals the opportunity to interpret complex administrative data and view trends, outliers and variability in the process, so they can improve their efficiency and terms of care." Socrates attracted over $1.5 million in capital and established several national distribution partnerships.

Honors and awards In 2001, Delaney was chosen to deliver the 24th Millin Lecture and awarded the prestigious Millin Medal by Royal College of Surgeons Ireland, named in honor of Terence Millin, the late Irish surgeon.

Delaney was recognized as the Jeffrey L. Ponsky MD Endowed Professor of Surgical Education at Case Western Reserve University in 2009, the inaugural Murdough Master Clinician in Colorectal Surgery in 2011,

Delaney is past President of the International Society of Laparoscopic Colorectal Surgery and the Midwest Surgical Association. In 2022, he was appointed President of the American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons and has previously received awards from the Association of Coloproctology of Great Britain and Ireland, as well as from colorectal societies in Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, Brazil, and across North America.

In September 2018, Delaney was invited to deliver the keynote address at the 43rd Sir Peter Freyer Memorial Lecture and Surgical Symposium in Galway, Ireland.

In December 2018, Delaney was awarded an Honorary Fellowship from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. In the acknowledgement for his book, Delaney credits his father, Peter, "whose love of surgery and its ability to help others led [Conor] to this field."

Books Victor W. Fazio, James M. Church, Conor P. Delaney (2005) Current Therapy in Colon and Rectal Surgery. Elsevier Mosby. 2nd edition. Conor P. Delaney, Paul C. Neary, Alexander G. Heriot, Anthony J. Senagore (2006) Operative Techniques in Laparoscopic Colorectal Surgery. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Conor P. Delaney, Paul C. Neary, Alexander G. Heriot, Anthony J. Senagore (2009) Tecnicas Operatorias Em Cirurgia Colorretal Laparoscopica. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Conor P. Delaney (2013) Netter's Surgical Anatomy and Approaches. Elsevier Health Sciences. Wai Lun Law, Conor P. Delaney (2013) Single Incision Laparoscopic and Transanal Colorectal Surgery. Springer Science & Business Media. Conor P. Delaney, Justin K. Lawrence, Bradley J. Champagne, Deborah S. Keller (2013) Operative Techniques in Laparoscopic Colorectal Surgery. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. 2nd edition. Liane S. Feldman, Conor P. Delaney, Olle Ljungqvist, Francesco Carli (2015) The SAGES / ERAS Society Manual of Enhanced Recovery Programs for Gastrointestinal Surgery. Springer. Hitendra R. H. Patel, Tim Mould, Jean V. Joseph, Conor P. Delaney (2015) Pelvic Cancer Surgery. Springer. Conor P Delaney (2015) Anatomia Y Abordajes Quirurgicos de Netter. Elsevier. Victor W. Fazio, James M. Church, Conor P. Delaney, Ravi P Kiran (2016) Current Therapy in Colon and Rectal Surgery. Elsevier Health Sciences. 3rd edition. Conor P Delaney (2016) Netter Anatomia E Abordagens Cirurgicas. Elsevier. Scott R. Steele, James M. Church, Conor P. Delaney, Tracy L. Hull, Matthew F. Kalady (2019) Illustrated Tips in Colon and Rectal Surgery. Wolters Kluwer. Conor P. Delaney (2020) Netter's Surgical Anatomy and Approaches. Elsevier Health Sciences. 2nd edition