Robert Zwolak M.D., Ph.D.

He completed general surgery residency at the University of Michigan and a vascular surgery fellowship at the University of Washington.  Dr. Zwolak then joined the staff at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center where he served as an academic vascular surgeon and director of the noninvasive vascular laboratory.  He was promoted to Professor of Surgery at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth in 1999.

In 2002, Dr. Zwolak was invited to implement a vascular surgery program at the White River Junction VA Medical Center. That effort was successful, and he was subsequently appointed Chief of Surgery at White River Junction in 2009.  In 2017, Dr. Zwolak accepted a request to serve as Acting Chief of Surgery at the Manchester VAMC, and in 2019 that evolved to a full-time position.

An accomplished leader, Dr. Zwolak has served several national appointments within the VA including chair of the VA Vascular Surgery Advisory Board.  He has been a leader in the regional and national vascular arena, serving as President of the New England Society for Vascular Surgery in 2004.  He was elected President of the Society for Vascular Surgery, our country’s largest vascular professional society in 2010.  Dr. Zwolak also served two terms as Governor of the American College of Surgeons, and he chaired the New Hampshire ACS Candidate Committee for over a decade. 

Dr. Zwolak has a longstanding interest in Coding and Reimbursement.  In that regard, he served on the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Ambulatory Payment Category Panel 2005-2009.  He also served two terms on the American Medical Association / Specialty Society Relative Value Update Committee (RUC).

Dr. Zwolak’s clinical interests include prevention of death from abdominal aortic aneurysm.  He chaired the National Aneurysm Alliance, a coalition that successfully convinced the U.S. Congress to pass the SAAAVE Act (Screen Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms Very Efficiently), creating a specific Medicare AAA screening benefit.  The provisions of the SAAAVE Act became federal law in 2007.

Dr. Zwolak’s research career includes publication of 30 academic book chapters, 98 peer-reviewed medical journal articles, and mentoring over 50 vascular surgery residents and fellows.  He was also appointed by the GAO as a Governor of the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute in 2009, and he is now serving a second term. PCORI funds comparative effectiveness research with an annual $500 million budget.