- About
- Specialties & Areas of Expertise
- Locations & Patient Information
- Education & Research
- Accepted Insurance
- External Professional Relationships
[MUSIC PLAYING] I am Michael Millis. I'm a professor of surgery at the University of Chicago. I have been here since 1994. My specialty is hepatobiliary pancreatic surgery, which is a long way of saying liver, bile ducts, and pancreas surgery. I am a trained liver transplant surgeon. And for all of those years, I have been involved in the liver transplant program. For the past several years, I have focused more on my non-transplant hepatobiliary and pancreatic surgery, so surgery of the liver or the bile ducts and the pancreas but without the transplant component.
I became a physician because I love taking care of patients and serving patients who have severe medical problems. And it kind of runs in my family. My maternal, well, my paternal great grandmother was a nurse midwife. My grandfather was a general practitioner in the hills of Tennessee. And my father was an obstetrician gynecologist. And so it kind of runs in our family that we like to serve patients when they have medical needs.
My philosophy of care is to kind of go deep and quickly into patients in their surgical problems. For the whole time I've been at the University of Chicago since 1994, I've taken care of very, very sick patients who need urgent care from a surgeon. And so I've been able to provide that care and allow many of their other medical problems to be taken care of by other specialists.
I have been involved in a number of different projects at the University of Chicago that have provided me new skills and new ways to think about things. I have been involved in research throughout my whole 29 years here at the University of Chicago, everything from cellular transplant and research to immunosuppressive trials, new surgical techniques, and even was the primary Western collaborator for the Chinese Ministry of Health to develop an ethical system and regulation for their transplant industry, including developing a voluntary citizen based organ donation system in China.
So all of those skills and aspects have been fun and exciting. But my heart fills with the joy that I can provide patients by helping them with their surgical problems.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Dr. Millis's research explores the application of cellular technology to patient care. For instance, he is investigating how hepatocyte transplantation, extracorporeal assist technology and stem cells can assist in the care of patients with liver disease or liver tumors. His research interests also include health and policy ethics. He is a consultant to the Chinese Ministry of Health to help them transform their transplant system, including the development of a donor system for volunteer citizen deceased donors.
Specialties
Areas of Expertise
- Critical Care Surgery
- Pediatric Liver Transplant
- Complex Abdominal Surgery
Board Certifications
- Surgical Critical Care
- Surgery
Practicing Since
- 1994
Languages Spoken
- English
Medical Education
- University of Tennessee
Internship
- UCLA Health
Residency
- UCLA Medical Center
Fellowship
- University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine; University of California Los Angeles Health; UCLA Medical Center
Memberships & Medical Societies
- Society of University Surgeons
- American Society of Transplantation
- International Pediatric Transplant Association
- American Society of Transplant Surgeons
- American College of Surgeons
News & Research
Insurance
- Aetna Better Health *see insurance page
- Aetna HMO (specialists only)
- Aetna Medicare Advantage HMO & PPO
- Aetna POS
- Aetna PPO
- BCBS Blue Precision HMO (specialists only)
- BCBS HMO (HMOI) (specialists only)
- BCBS Medicare Advantage HMO & PPO
- BCBS PPO
- Cigna HMO
- Cigna POS
- Cigna PPO
- CountyCare *see insurance page
- Humana Medicare Advantage Choice PPO
- Humana Medicare Advantage Gold Choice PFFS
- Humana Medicare Advantage Gold Plus HMO
- Medicare
- Multiplan PPO
- PHCS PPO
- United Choice Plus POS/PPO
- United Choice HMO (specialists only)
- United Options (PPO)
- United Select (HMO & EPO) (specialists only)
- United W500 Emergent Wrap
- University of Chicago Health Plan (UCHP)
Our list of accepted insurance providers is subject to change at any time. You should contact your insurance company to confirm UChicago Medicine participates in their network before scheduling your appointment. If you have questions regarding your insurance benefits at UChicago Medicine, please contact our financial counseling team at OPSFinancialCounseling@uchospitals.edu.
Some of our physicians and health professionals collaborate with external pharmaceutical, medical device, or other medical related entities to develop new treatments and products to improve clinical outcomes for patients. In some instances, the physician has ownership interests in the external entity and/or is compensated for advising or speaking about the entity’s products or treatments. These payments may include compensation for consulting and speaking engagements, equity, and/or royalties for products invented by our physicians. To assure objectivity and integrity in patient care, UChicago Medicine requires all physicians and health professionals to report their relationships and financial interests with external entities on an annual basis. This information is used to review relationships and transactions that might give rise to potential financial conflicts of interest, and when considered to be significant a management plan to mitigate any biases is created.
If you are a patient at UChicago Medicine and would like more information about your physician’s external relationships, please talk with your physician. You may also visit the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Open Payments website at https://openpaymentsdata.cms.gov/ . CMS Open Payments is a national disclosure program that promotes a more transparent and accountable health care system. It houses a publicly accessible database of payments that reporting entities, including drug and medical device companies, make to covered recipients like physicians and hospitals.
Information in the CMS Open Payments database could potentially contain inaccurately reported and out of date payment information. All information is open to personal interpretation, if there are questions about the data, patients and their advocates should speak directly to their health care provider for a better understanding.