Memorial Health Announces New Program Director for Surgical Education

Oliver C. Whipple, MD, FACS, FASMBS, has been named the new program director for the General Surgery Residency Program at Memorial Health in Savannah.

Dr. Whipple will continue his practice as a robotic and bariatric surgeon with Memorial Health University Physicians Surgical & Bariatric Care while leading Memorial Health’s surgical education program. He also practices at Memorial Health Meadows Hospital in Vidalia.

He will be the eighth program director for Memorial Health’s surgical education program, which began in 1959. Dr. Whipple succeeds Christopher Senkowski, MD, who recently joined Baptist Health South Florida as the first program director for their new surgery residency program.

“I am honored to have the opportunity to lead the surgical education program at Memorial Health,” said Dr. Whipple. “This program is very special to me. I completed my residency here and have been training surgery residents and medical students for nearly 20 years. Many of the outstanding surgeons practicing in our region today were residents in our program. I look forward to building on our standard of excellence in surgery education.”

Dr. Whipple has also been named chair of the Department of Surgery at Mercer University School of Medicine (MUSM) Savannah Campus. “Dr. Whipple is an accomplished surgeon and outstanding teacher,” stated Dean Jean Sumner. “We are honored to have him on our faculty and proud that he is an MUSM graduate.”

Dr. Whipple is a general surgeon specializing in robotic & bariatric surgery. He joined Memorial Health in 2005 and was an early leader in its robotic surgery program. He performed the region’s first robotic gastric sleeve surgery in 2018 and has completed more than 3,500 bariatric surgeries and over 2,000 robotic surgeries.

“Dr. Whipple is an outstanding surgeon and educator with a passion for training new surgeons, and we are excited to have him lead our surgical residency program,” said William Hannah, Designated Institutional Official and Executive Director of Medical Education at Memorial Health. Dr. Whipple has been a part of Memorial Health’s surgery program for 25 years and is uniquely qualified to lead its surgical residency into the future. He completed his surgical residency at Memorial Health, where he was three times honored as Resident of the Year. After completing his surgical residency in 2004, Dr. Whipple embarked upon fellowship training in minimally invasive and bariatric surgery at the Cleveland Clinic Florida. He returned to Memorial Health University Medical Center as a faculty member in the Department of Surgical Education where he is an associate professor at Mercer University School of Medicine.

His teaching accomplishments include selection as Outstanding Clinical Faculty in Surgery multiple years and recipient of the William T. Halsted, M.D., Award for Excellence in Teaching.

He completed his undergraduate education at the University of Georgia, where he subsequently attended pharmacy school prior to his medical training. He attended Mercer University School of Medicine and graduated in 1999.