Meghan Elizabeth Garstka, MD

• Vanderbilt University, BA, Cell and Molecular Biology/Spanish, 2008
• Tulane University School of Science and Engineering, MS, Cell and Molecular Biology, 2009
• Tulane University School of Medicine, MD, 2013 
• Tulane Unviersity School of Medicine, Residency in General Surgery, 2020
• Massachusetts General Hospital/Brigham and Women's Hospital/Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Fellowship in Breast Surgical Oncology, 2021

Dr. Meghan Garstka is a breast surgical oncologist with clinical expertise in benign and malignant diseases of the breast. She also has a clinical interest in the management of patients with elevated lifetime risk of breast cancer.  She completed a Master of Science degree in Cell and Molecular Biology at the Tulane University School of Science and Engineering and subsequently medical school at the Tulane University School of Medicine, where she was a member of the inaugural class of the DeBakey Scholars Program, a four-year mentored research program. She remained at Tulane for General Surgery Residency, during which she completed designated research time with a focus on clinical outcomes in general surgery and surgical oncology, as well as surgical education. Her research efforts resulted in receiving the Rudolph Matas Clinical Research Award from the Tulane Department of Surgery in 2018, an American Thyroid Association Trainee Grant, and a grant from the Society of Surgical Oncology to present a research poster at the Chinese Society of Clinical Oncology in Xiamen, China. She was designated the first-place winner for the Cancer Paper Competition at the Louisiana Chapter of the American College of Surgeons Annual Meeting 2020.  She then completed a Society of Surgical Oncology-accredited Breast Surgical Oncology Fellowship at the combined program of Massachusetts General Hospital/Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

Dr. Garstka's research interests include various aspects of clinical outcomes in breast cancer treatment and surgery, including cost-effectiveness, patient-reported outcomes, and quality of care.  She is also interested in health equity and access to care. 

breast cancer, breast surgical oncology, clinical outcomes, patient-reported outcomes, cost-effectiveness, health equity

Garstka M, Henriquez A, Kelly BN, Webster A, Khubchandani JA, Hughes K, Nguyen A, Oseni T, Specht M, Coopey SB, Gadd MA, Smith BL. How Protective are Nipple-Sparing Prophylactic Mastectomies in BRCA1 and BRCA2 Mutation Carriers? Ann Surg Oncol. 2021 Oct;28(10):5657-5662. 

Garstka M, Monlezun D, Kandil E. Does Distance to Treatment Affect Mortality Rate for Surgical Oncology Patients? Am Surg. 2020 Sep;86(9):1129-1134. 

Garstka ME, Monlezun D, DuCoin C, Killackey M, Kandil E. The Sunshine Act and Surgeons: A Nation-Wide Analysis of Industry Payments to Physicians. J Surg Res. 2019 Jan;233:41-49.

Garstka M, Honda M, Crowther J, Hess A, Schroll R, Killackey M, DuCoin C. Effect of Community and Academic Surgical Rotation Sites on Medical Student Performance Outcomes and Career Choices. J Surg Educ. 2019 Jul-Aug;76(4):970-974. 

Garstka ME, Randolph GW, Haddad AB, Nathan CO, Ibraheem K, Farag M, Deot N, Adib H, Hoof M, French K, Killackey MT, Kandil E. Gender disparities are present in academic rank and leadership positions despite overall equivalence in research productivity indices among senior members of American Head and Neck Society (AHNS) Fellowship Faculty. Head Neck. 2019 Nov;41(11):3818-3825.