MOHS SURGERY

Dr. McGovern grew up in Escanaba in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and obtained a degree in biology from Michigan Technological University in Houghton, Michigan. He proceeded to Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN where he completed medical school on a US Army scholarship. His transitional internship was performed at Eisenhower Army Medical Center at Fort Gordon (near Augusta), GA. He next served two years doing defensive biological warfare research (vaccine development) at the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick (near Frederick), MD. His training resumed with a three-year dermatology residency at Fitzsimons Army Medical Center in Aurora (Denver suburb), CO, and he finished his US Army obligation by running the dermatology clinic at Fort Riley (near Manhattan), KS for two years. Following an Honorable Discharge from the US Army, he moved to Connecticut where he completed a one year fellowship in Mohs and Advanced Dermatologic Surgery at the Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven. He has performed Mohs Surgery at Fort Wayne Dermatology Consultants since January 2000.

Mohs surgeons act as both a surgeon who cuts out cancer and repairs defects and as the pathologist who examines microscope slides of the skin to see if the cancer is removed or not. Because of its tissue-sparing nature and its unparalleled cure rates, Mohs surgery is the preferred treatment for skin cancer on cosmetically sensitive areas, large or recurrent cancers, or cancers that have an aggressive pattern under the microscope. In August 2021, he added treatment of shallow melanomas with the Mohs procedure.

With the assistance of his reliable team of compassionate, experienced, and talented surgical assistants and histotechnologists, he has removed over 34,000 skin cancers (as of January 2023) – the vast majority on the face – with the Mohs technique. Of those defects, 55% were sutured side-to-side, 25% healed on their own, 15% were reconstructed with local flaps or grafts, and 5% were referred to local plastic surgeons for repair.

Dr. McGovern has published numerous book chapters, articles, and editorials and has given many oral presentations on various aspects of skin disease. He received the Gold Triangle Award from the American Academy of Dermatology for excellence in public education for skin disease. He currently serves as an at-large member of the National Board of the Catholic Medical Association and has overseen national outreach to Catholic medical students and young physicians in training since 2019. He is now doing this on an international level for medical students around the world with a multi-national team of physicians and medical students. In 2022 at an international conference in Rome, he received the Gold Medal of FIAMC (the International Federation of Catholic Medical Associations) for excellence and creativity in effectively serving the needs of Catholic medical students and young physicians.

He has co-hosted the weekly radio show and podcast Doctor, Doctor since January 2018 that now airs on Saturday mornings on over 350 radio stations. It has won three straight Gabriel Awards of the Catholic Media (not Medical) Association for excellence in broadcasting competing against full-time media professionals. His first book What Christ Suffered: A Doctor’s Journey Through the Passion received a 2022 award from the Catholic Media (not Medical) Association as the Best Book written about Jesus and has been an Amazon #1 Best Seller in its category of Christian Historical Theology just before Easter in 2021 and 2022. He is a Knight Commander of the over 900-year-old Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem. Dr. McGovern and his wife Sally live in Fort Wayne and have seven home-schooled children.