Dr. Jay Harness, the immediate past-President of The American Society of Breast Surgeons and the President-elect of Breast Surgery International, is the Director at St. Joseph Hospital Comprehensive Breast Center in Orange, California. Practicing medicine for 35 years, Dr. Harness specializes in general surgery and medical oncology.
After graduating from medical school from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, he conducted his internship and residency at the University of Michigan Medical Center. Dr. Harness then remained on the faculty at the University of Michigan and developed the second United States multidisciplinary breast center in 1985. He left the University of Michigan in 1989 and spent two years at Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston where he also established a multidisciplinary breast center at St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center. Subsequently, he came to Oakland, California in 1991 to join the University of California-East Bay Department of Surgery where he was a Professor and Chief of Surgical Oncology at Highland General Hospital. The opportunity to direct his third multidisciplinary breast center in Southern California came in the summer of 2003.
Dr. Harness has also had two teaching opportunities during his career: both as Chief of Surgical Oncology at the Alameda County Medical Center at the University of California-Highland Campus in Oakland, California, and as a Clinical Professor of Surgery, at the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine.
Dr. Harness has been recognized nationally and internationally for his work in breast and endocrine surgery. He is a member of several national and international surgical societies and associations. He has served as Secretary-Treasurer, and President of the American Association of Endocrine Surgeons and Chair, Board of Directors, of The American Society of Breast Surgeons. He has authored nearly 80 scientific articles and book chapters and has been the lead editor of 2 textbooks.
Publications and books include Breast Cancer-Collaborative Management, helping to edit Ultrasound in Surgical Practice: Basic Principles and Clinical Applications, and writing chapters in over 20 books, including Expert Consultations in Breast Cancer and Surgical Oncology.
Dr. Harness has also worked as Principal Investigator in two studies: "Breast Cancer Early Detection Regional Partnership," through the California Department of Health Services, and "The Breast Care Center: Innovative Care for the Underserved," through the Breast Cancer Research Program.
