Nicholas Baker, MD

WVU Department of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery

Dr. Nicholas Baker, a proud West Virginian from McDowell County, earned his medical degree from West Virginia University. His general surgery training continued at Charleston Area Medical Center. He furthered his training in cardiothoracic surgery at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center where Drs. Jason Lamb, Lawrence Wei, and Vinay Badhwar were all faculty at the time. During his training he spent elective time furthering his interest in surgical robotics and oncology at New York’s Memorial Sloan Kettering. Finally, he completed his education with an advanced fellowship in minimally invasive and robotic thoracic surgery fellowship in Pittsburgh after which he stayed on as faculty.

Dr. Baker has focused his career on robotic-assisted thoracic surgery, serving as the Director of Robotic Thoracic Surgery at UPMC. He is a well-known mentor to countless trainees and he frequently serves as an invited proctor for advanced training workshops for early and mid-career thoracic surgeons.

Alongside his robotic-assisted surgery expertise, Dr Baker created a program for the management of thoracic outlet syndrome utilizing Robotic assisted first rib resection. Moreover, he helped lead the adult pectus excavatum program in Pittsburgh, which uses minimally invasive techniques, among many other innovations in advanced cancer therapeutics.

Dr. Baker proudly joins the WVU Division of Thoracic Surgery in the Department of Cardiovascular & Thoracic Surgery and the WVU Heart & Vascular Institute. He will be seeing patients at WVU Medicine United Hospital Center and Ruby Memorial Hospital starting in late August 2024. Dr. Baker brings expertise in all aspects of thoracic surgery including, benign and malignant diseases of the lung, esophagus, mediastinum, and pleura with robotic, minimally invasive, and open approaches. He looks forward to joining the mission of the WVU Heart & Vascular Institute and the WVU Division of Thoracic Surgery by helping impact the health of West Virginia through increasing access to lung and esophageal cancer screenings and participating in multidisciplinary cancer care throughout the state.