Dr. Royall is the Associate Program Director for the General Surgery Residency program at Northeast Georgia Medical Center. His focus is on enhancing training in surgical quality improvement and research, focused ultrasonography, and advanced robotic surgery for General Surgery residents. He has been selected as the Graduate Medical Education Research Mentor of the Year for multiple years. He serves as the faculty sponsor for the Gastrointestinal and Oncology Research Interest Groups at Northeast Georgia Medical Center. He holds academic appointments as a Clinical Assistant Professor within the Medical College of Georgia, Associate Professor within Mercer University, and Clinical Assistant Professor within Philadelphia College of Medicine.
Clinically, he serves as a part of the Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Surgery program at Northeast Georgia Health System. He performs complex surgery for disorders of the pancreas including pancreatoduodenectomy (Whipple Procedure), distal pancreatectomy, total pancreatectomy, pancreatic drainage procedures (Frey, Puestow, and Beger Procedures). He performs complex surgery for disorders of the liver including hepatectomy procedures, liver ablation, and bile duct reconstruction. He performs liver and pancreas surgery using both traditional and minimally invasive approaches including laparoscopic and robotic techniques. He is one of the only experienced surgeons in the US in robotic Whipple procedures, liver resection, and esophagectomy procedures.
In addition to liver, pancreas, and biliary malignancies he performs surgery for esophagus, stomach, duodenum, small intestine, and sarcoma using traditional and minimally invasive approaches such as laparoscopic and robotic techniques. He is a recognized national leader in Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Surgery, including robotic surgery, and complex diseases such as neuroendocrine tumors, polyposis syndromes, and pancreatitis. He leads one of the only histotripsy programs for liver tumors in the world at Northeast Georgia Medical Center.
He is actively engaged in multiple multi-disciplinary clinical research projects focused on histotripsy for liver tumors, pancreatic cancer, pancreatitis, neuroendocrine tumors, and bile duct tumors. He has research interests across benign and malignant pancreas, biliary, liver, and gastro-esophageal diseases as well as focused ultrasound and robotic surgery education. He serves as the Cancer Liaison Physician for Northeast Georgia Health System and leads the Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Tumor Board program. He has had leadership roles on multiple national societies including American College of Surgeons, Society for Surgery of the Alimentary Tract, Americas Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Association, Society of Surgical Oncology, and the Association for Academic Surgery.
Specialty Interests
Biliary and pancreatic surgery, gastrointestinal surgery, general surgery, hepatobiliary and pancreatic surgery, hepatobiliary surgery, laparoscopy, surgical endoscopy, surgical oncology, robotic surgery, ultrasonography, histotripsy
Awards & Honors
- Epsilon Lambda Chi, Department of Engineering, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 2005
- Alpha Nu Sigma, Division of Nuclear & Radiological Sciences, Department of Engineering, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 2006
- Summa Cum Laude, Department of Engineering, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 2007
- Ultrasound Olympics 2011 1st Place, College of Medicine, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 2011
- Landacre Research Honor Society, College of Medicine, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 2011
- Olga Jonasson Award in Surgery, College of Medicine, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 2011
- 2014 Distinguished Reviewer Award, Journal of Ultrasound in Medicine 2014
- Resident of the Year Academic Award 2014-2015, Department of Surgery, Orlando Health, Orlando, FL 2015
- 2015 Distinguished Reviewer Award, Journal of Ultrasound in Medicine 2015
- Excellence in Teaching Award 2016-2017, Graduate Medical Education, Cleveland Clinic Foundation 2017
- GME Faculty Research Mentor of the Year Award 2022-2023, Graduate Medical Education, Northeast Georgia Health System 2023
- GME Faculty Research Mentor of the Year Award 2023-2024, Graduate Medical Education, Northeast Georgia Health System 2024