Ira Leeds

Dr. Ira Leeds serves as Assistant Professor of Surgery (Colon and Rectal) and Assistant Professor in Biomedical Informatics & Data Science at Yale School of Medicine. He maintains clinical appointments in Colorectal Surgery and is a Clinical Member of Yale Cancer Center's Cancer Prevention and Control Program. His practice encompasses the full spectrum of benign and malignant diseases affecting the colon, rectum, and anus including colorectal cancer, inflammatory bowel disease, and anorectal conditions.

• AB in Politics from Princeton University (2006)
• MBA from University of Oxford (2012)
• MD from Emory University (2013)
• ScM in Clinical Investigation from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (2018)
• General Surgery Residency at Johns Hopkins Hospital (2014-2020)
• Colon and Rectal Surgery Fellowship at Cleveland Clinic (2021)

Dr. Leeds' research centers on surgical decision-making with emphasis on preoperative risk optimization, particularly for high-risk patients with colorectal cancer and inflammatory bowel disease. His lab develops clinical decision support tools and cost-effectiveness models to align surgical decisions with patient goals and societal benefits. He focuses on identifying modifiable risk factors and implementing data visualization schemes to reduce signal noise during clinical decision-making processes.

Analysis of his recent publications reveals consistent focus on colorectal surgical outcomes, with particular attention to low anterior resection syndrome, preoperative optimization, and cost-effectiveness of surgical interventions. His work frequently employs Markov modeling and decision analysis to evaluate surgical approaches, with increasing emphasis on psychosocial frailty assessment and health equity considerations in surgical care.

• VA Research Award for AI, Housing Study (2025)

Dr. Leeds leads a clinical research lab focused on identifying and optimizing modifiable risk factors in abdominal surgery. His research is supported through VA funding and collaborations with Yale Cancer Center. He actively mentors trainees through the Biomedical Informatics and Data Science Training Program and VA IMPAACT Fellowship. His professional activities include serving on the American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons Awards Committee and the Association of Academic Surgery Finance Committee.

His research team includes frequent collaborators from Yale Cancer Center and the Clinical Epidemiology Research Center at the Department of Veterans Affairs. Current projects involve developing rapid psychosocial assessment techniques and evaluating cost-effectiveness of regionalized rectal cancer surgery.