Avo Artinyan, MD, MS

About Avo Artinyan, MD, MS

Avo Artinyan, MD, MS, is the CEO and founder of Academic Surgical Associates in Glendale, California. A nationally recognized expert and innovator in surgical oncology and colorectal surgery, Dr. Artinyan is a board-certified general surgeon, fellowship-trained surgical oncologist, and colorectal surgeon.

Dr. Artinyan is a nationally recognized expert in minimally-invasive gastrointestinal surgical oncology, particularly laparoscopic, robotic, and transanal colon and rectal cancer surgery. He is known for sphincter-preserving and organ-preserving resection techniques for rectal cancer and was among the early developers of transanal minimally invasive surgery (TAMIS). He also specializes in the surgical treatment of gastric, pancreaticobiliary, soft tissue, and breast cancers, and other general surgical diseases.

As a surgeon’s surgeon, Dr. Artinyan has been asked to operate on his colleagues, residents, and students. He is one of the few surgeons in Southern California who offers totally intracorporeal laparoscopic and robotic surgery, which provides excellent oncologic results with superior postoperative outcomes.

Dr. Artinyan graduated from the University of California San Diego School of Medicine and completed his training in general surgery and research fellowship in colorectal surgery at the Los Angeles County+USC Medical Center. He then completed a three-year clinical and research surgical oncology fellowship at City of Hope Cancer Center focused on gastrointestinal and colorectal surgical oncology as well as robotic surgery.

Dr. Artinyan joined the Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) faculty in the world-renowned Texas Medical Center in 2009 and established one of the busiest robotic surgical oncology and colorectal surgery programs in the country. He served as the Chief of the Division of Colon and Rectal Surgery at BCM and was recognized with the Fulbright and Jaworski Faculty Excellence Award, the Baylor STAR Award for Excellence in Clinical Practice, and multiple teaching awards.

Dr. Artinyan was recruited to Los Angeles in 2018 to serve as the Co-Director of Surgical Oncology for the Verity Medical Foundation to develop a world-class cancer center in the heart of Los Angeles.

Dr. Artinyan is active in clinical research and has authored more than 60 peer-reviewed publications and several book chapters. He has been invited as a guest lecturer nationally and throughout the world and serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Surgical Research.

Dr. Artinyan is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons and a member of the American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgery, Society of Surgical Oncology, Association for Academic Surgery, and the Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons.