Edward Barksdale, MD
Edward Barksdale, MD
Professor of Surgery
"Chief Surgical Officer, Chicagoland Children's Health Alliance (CCHA)"
Specialties
- Pediatric Surgery
Locations
- Chicago - Hyde Park
- About
- Specialties & Areas of Expertise
- Locations & Patient Information
- Education & Research
- Accepted Insurance
- External Professional Relationships
[AUDIO LOGO] Hi, I'm Ed Barksdale, Edward M. Barksdale, Jr, Dr. Ed, as I go by, I am a Pediatric General and Thoracic Surgeon. I'm also the Chief Surgical Officer of the Chicagoland Children's Health Alliance. I chose to become a physician for really diverse reasons. I was born and raised in the 1960s in the South, in a place called Lynchburg, Virginia.
And during the '60s, there were two images for me that jumped out of the TV and jumped out of my home that impacted my desire to be a physician. I was absolutely fascinated by being an astronaut as a young child. Up until the time I was about 12, I would see the images of the spaceships, the spacewalk, and the landing on the moon, and I wanted to do that.
I realized from my teachers that I needed to be a scientist. And so I pursued science. But there was another strong cord or wave that existed in my life in the 1960s, and that came from what I saw outside the TV in my community and in my home. My parents were civil rights activists, and in fact, with one other family, led the second integration suit in the history of Virginia.
My mother, a seamstress in a sock factory, never finished the 10th grade, my father, a postal worker, were strongly motivated toward the things that we did to build community, to ensure social justice. And so when I looked at those two things that converged, which combined together to inspire me, medicine was the easy thing to aspire to.
I have been an adult surgeon. And for the last 30 years, I have-- more than 30 years, I've been only a pediatric surgeon. And so when I thought of adult surgery, my first 10 years of my career, which were in adult surgery, I felt those were very exciting years. I can remember doing traumas, or big surgery, and leaving the operating room thinking that I saved a life. And that was a very ego-driven time. And so we use the word ego, and sometimes it's not positive, but I felt really good about what I did.
When I became a pediatric surgeon, I felt even better about what I did because I saw that I never saved a life. I was working with a group of people to save whole lifetimes. And when you save a whole lifetime, there is no one single event within that lifetime that is any more important than another. And so you see yourself as a part of a community of care that helps to get a child to a place where they forget you ever existed.
[AUDIO LOGO]
Specialties
Areas of Expertise
- Neuroblastoma
- Complex Gastrointestinal Surgery
- Intestinal Failure in Children
Board Certifications
- Pediatric Surgery
Languages Spoken
- English
Medical Education
- Harvard Medical School
Residency
- Massachusetts General Hospital
Fellowship
- Children's Hospital Medical Center; Pediatric Surgery (Research)
Memberships & Medical Societies
- American Academy of Pediatrics
- American College of Surgeons
- American Pediatric Surgical Association
- Society of Black Academic 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.
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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.