Parathyroid Surgeons:
Dr James Norman, Dr Douglas Politz,
Dr Jose Lopez, and Dr Rafael Toro
of the
Norman Parathyroid Center

Tampa General Hospital was named one of America's Best Hospitals for Head and Neck Surgery by US News and World Reports, and one of America's Best Hospitals in Endocrinology by US News and World Reports for the past 7 years.

Our hospital is rated the number 1 hospital in Florida.

.

Our surgeons are rated in the top 1% of all SURGEONS by US News & World Reports
Click to verify.

Drs Norman, Politz, and Lopez are multi-time winners of the Patient's Choice Award (top 2.5% of 720,000 doctors in the US) for "exceptionally high praise granted by patients"  Verify

.
Our doctors are rated in top 1% of all DOCTORS by US News & World Reports.

Drs Norman, Politz and Lopez, have been selected one of America's Top Surgeons 11 years in a row.

All of our doctors are listed in America's Top Doctors by Vital's.com Patient Rankings

.
Dr Norman, Dr Politz, and Dr Lopez, are Fellows of the American College of Surgeons.

.
Dr. Norman and Dr Politz are Fellows of the American College of Endocrinology.

The surgeons at the Norman Parathyroid Center are by far the most experienced parathyroid surgeons in the world. James (Jim) Norman, MD, FACS, FACE, is recognized as one of world's foremost experts on parathyroid disease. Dr Norman is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons (FACS) and also a Fellow of the American College of Endocrinology (FACE). He is recognized as the inventor of minimally invasive radioguided parathyroid surgery in the mid 1990s, and is credited with dramatically changing the way parathyroid surgery is performed. Dr Norman has performed over 18,000 mini-parathyroid operations.

Douglas (Doug) Politz, MD, FACS, FACE, trained in mini-parathyroid surgery under Dr Norman in the late 1990's and practiced in Texas from 2000 until 2005 when he re-joined the Norman Parathyroid Center. Dr Politz has performed more parathyroid operations (over 13,000) than anybody in the world other than Dr Norman.

Jose Lopez, MD, FACS is a very talented surgeon who spent 5 years training at USF under Dr Norman and alongside Dr Politz. He then completed a 1 year fellowship in minimally invasive surgery and has become very gifted and accomplished in mini-surgical techniques capable of tackling the most difficult operations. Dr Lopez is by far the third most experienced parathyroid surgeon in the world.

Rafael Toro, MD, is our newest parathyroid expert, but even as the newest member of the team he is one of the world's most experienced parathyroid doctors. Rafael performed his surgical training at SUNY Buffalo, and then completed a 2-year fellowship in head and neck cancer surgery at MD Anderson Cancer Center. Even though Rafael is our newest surgeon, he is already the 4th most experienced parathyroid surgeon in the world (he participates in about 33 parathyroid operations every week!).

Click Here to read more about Dr Norman, Dr Politz, Dr Lopez, and Dr Toro.

You Can Have the Worlds Most Experienced Parathyroid Surgeons
 Perform Your Parathyroid Surgery

Because of the demand for mini-parathyroid surgery, their expertise, and exceptional results, our surgeons perform an average of 11-12 parathyroid operations per day, about 55 per week, with an expected cure rate of over 99% and a complication rate near zero. Nearly 100% of patients will go home within 2 hours of their parathyroid operation. Virtually 100% will have a scar that is only 1 inch that will be essentially invisible within 6-9 months. The average operative time is less than 20 minutes with the most parathyroid operations taking between 16 and 19 minutes. Even patients with a negative sestamibi scan and a negative ultrasound can expect a mini-operation that takes less than 18 minutes. The average operation time for patients needing all 4 parathyroid glands assessed is 17 minutes--these patients are treated exactly the same...in fact, we perform the same mini-operation on all patients, regardless of scan results. We evaluate all four parathyroid glands in 98% of all patients--the only way to get near 100% cure. One final note... All four of our surgeons are fantastic and they work in teams of two. We don't use surgeons in training to do your operation, you will have TWO of the world's most gifted and experienced parathyroid surgeons take care of you.

 If you want to become our patient, we have a separate page that explains the process and the cost. Click Here.

The Norman Parathyroid Center is dedicated to parathyroid disease only. We operate within the new Parathyroid Center at Tampa General Hospital, a new wing of this large hospital dedicated to the treatment of parathyroid disease. Drs Norman, Politz, Lopez, and Toro are the only surgeons in the world that limit their practice to parathyroid disease. 

More About Dr Jim Norman, MD, FACS, FACE.

Dr Norman is the most experienced parathyroid surgeon in the world and is considered the "father" of mini-parathyroid surgery. For over 18 years Dr Norman has limited his surgical practice to parathyroid operations -- he does not perform any other type of surgery. Dr Norman has performed over 19,000 parathyroid operations on patients ranging from 3 months old to 105 years old and operates on people over the age of 80 once or twice per day and on teenagers about every 2 weeks. He also averages over three operations per day on patients that have had an unsuccessful parathyroid surgery somewhere else. It is safe to say that there probably isn't a parathyroid problem that Dr Norman hasn't seen. A typical operation to look at all 4 parathyroid glands (about 98% of all people get all four glands examined so we can approach 100% cure) typically takes Dr Norman about 13-18 minutes (total time). Dr Norman (and everybody on his team) performs all operations via a 1 inch incision (aprox). Watch the video of Dr Norman performing a 4-gland parathyroid operation (you want your surgeon to look at all four parathyroid glands) where he removes two tumors during an operation that takes less than 13 minutes from cut to bandaid.

Dr Norman has held several important academic positions, including Professor of Surgery and Professor of Internal Medicine at the University of South Florida College of Medicine. He also held the position of Director of Endocrine Surgery at USF and the Director of Surgical Core Laboratory for Surgical Research.  Dr Norman left USF in 2000 to open the Norman Parathyroid Center. He is currently the Director of the Parathyroid Center at Tampa General Hospital.  He is a member of more than 20 prestigious medical societies, including the American Association for Endocrine Surgeons, Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, Fellow of the American College of Endocrinology, the American Association for Clinical Endocrinology, the Endocrine Society, the Society of University Surgeons, American Association for Head and Neck Surgeons, the Society of Surgical Oncology, the American College of Surgeons, AOA medical honor society (top 10% of doctors), and many more. His is one of only a handful of surgeons worldwide who is also a fellow of the American College of Endocrinology (FACE). He was the president of his medical school class, been voted 'Faculty of the Year' and 'Teacher of the Year' several times while at the University of South Florida, and served many leadership roles within the societies he belongs. He has been recognized as one of America's Top Surgeons by the Consumer Research Council of America for 11 years in a row. He has been awarded the "Patients Choice Award" 8 consecutive years (top 3% of 720,000 American doctors) for his bedside manner and how he "treats" his patients. He is rated as US News and World Reports "Top Doctors" being ranked in the top 1% of all surgeons in the US for many years. He scored in the 99+ percentile on his surgery boards, and has served as an examiner for the American Board of Surgery. In October of 2011 Dr Norman was chosen by the Tampa Bay Business Journal as the most significant physician in the Tampa Bay area for 2011, having the greatest impact on patients within the Tampa Bay community. Dr Norman has published more than 250 medical journal articles as well as 12 books and/or book chapters.  Most of Dr. Norman's publications revolve around his extensive work with endocrine disorders including parathyroid glands, parathyroid surgery and pancreas disorders. Dr Norman publishes medical journal articles on parathyroid disease on a regular basis. A full copy of Dr Norman's curriculum vitae (resume') is online--Click Here to view. including all of Dr Norman's credentials and a full list of publications.  He is married to a family practice physician and has two incredible children (a daughter 21, and a son 18).

Dr. Norman is a frequent speaker on the topic of parathyroid surgery, giving talks around the US on a frequent basis.  He has been an invited speaker on the topic of minimal parathyroid surgery at the American College of Surgeons Annual Meeting on 14 occasions. Dr Norman has published the 12 largest parathyroid articles of all time (most patients) and serves as a reviewer for several medical journals. Dr Norman holds 6 US and foreign patents (with another 3 patents pending), including the patent for the techniques and tools used in radioguided parathyroidectomy which recognize his contributions to minimal parathyroid surgery.  Dr Norman was a central member of the prestigious Moffitt Cancer Center team that helped develop sentinel lymph node mapping for breast cancer and melanoma (which is now the preferred way to perform breast cancer and melanoma surgery just as it is for parathyroid surgery). Dr Norman has received more than $4.2 million in federal and industry grants to support his research, including grants from the Department of Veteran's Affairs. Dr Norman has never had a malpractice claim.

More About Dr. Doug Politz, MD, FACS.

Dr. Politz obtained his Bachelor of Science degree from Louisiana State University where he was the recipient of an Honor’s Scholarship and Leadership Scholarship. He then attended LSU Medical School where he graduated with the Chancellor’s Award as the Most Outstanding Graduate. He was the president of his medical school class and received multiple honors and awards. He is a member of the prestigious Alpha Omega Alpha medical honor society (eligible to the top 10% of US medical school graduates). Dr. Politz obtained his surgical training at the University of South Florida, where he worked with Dr. Norman for 5 years. He was awarded Most Outstanding Resident and/or Resident of the Year on 3 different occasions. Similar to Drs Norman, and Lopez, Dr Politz has been awarded the "Patients Choice Award" 8 consecutive years (top 3% of 720,000 American doctors) for his bedside manner and how he "treats" his patients. He has been chosen as one of America's Top Surgeons for 9 consecutive years. Dr. Politz is board certified in General Surgery and a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons (FACS), and is also a Fellow of the American College of Endocrinology (FACE), is a member of the American Association of Endocrine Surgeons, and is a member of the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (among other medical societies). After graduating residency he practiced surgery in Austin, Texas where he introduced MIRP mini-parathyroid surgery to the state of Texas, building an extensive referral network making him the number one parathyroid surgeon in Texas. With the exception of Dr Norman, Dr Politz has performed far more parathyroid operations than any other surgeon worldwide (over 13,000). Two of our surgeons participate in every patient's operation, so all patients get the expertise of the two most experienced parathyroid surgeons. Dr. Politz has never had a malpractice claim. Doug is married to Laura Politz, MD (Obstetrics and Gynecology) and they have 3 small children, a boy 10 and twin girls 7.

More About Dr. Jose Lopez, MD, FACS.

Dr. Lopez was born and raised in Ponce, Puerto Rico, obtaining his Bachelor of Science degree at the University of Puerto Rico. He attended medical school at the University of Puerto Rico where he finished at the top of his class and was elected AOA national medical honor society (top 10% of all medical students) and won numerous awards for academic achievement and leadership. He performed his surgical training including chief residency at the University of South Florida (Tampa, FL), working under Dr Norman and alongside Dr Politz. While at USF Dr Lopez was recognized as Most Outstanding Resident or Resident of the Year three times. Finishing his residency in 2004, Dr Lopez completed a 1 year fellowship in advanced minimally invasive surgical techniques at USF. Like all our surgeons, Dr Lopez is board certified and is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons. Dr Lopez has gained the reputation of being extremely conscientious regarding the care of his patients, and remarkably gifted in the operating room. He has been named one of "America's Top Surgeons" annually for the past 7 years and been awarded the Patient's Choice Award 6 consecutive years. Jose has never had a malpractice claim. Jose is married and has three daughters, 14, 7 and 2.

More About Dr. Rafael Toro, MD

Dr. Toro is the newest parathyroid expert to join our team. Like Dr Lopez, he attended medical school at the University of Puerto Rico where he won many awards for academic achievement. He obtained his general surgery training at the State University of New York-Buffalo where he won a number of awards for patient care and excellence in the operating room. He then spent 2 years training in Head and Neck Cancer Surgery at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, TX.  Like our other surgeons, Dr Toro graduated at the top of his class and has been recognized by his peers as a very caring surgeon and very gifted in the operating room. Rafael is married and has three children, 2 boys and a baby girl. Like all our surgeons, Dr Toro operates along side one of the other surgeons--all patients get two of our expert surgeons performing their operation. Like all of our surgeons, Rafael has never been sued, and never had a claim filed against him.

*Note: The statistics on this page do not guarantee a good outcome for every patient, they simply reflect the fact that we do LOTS of parathyroid operations and our expertise allows us to have exceptional results. Our anesthesia team has done thousands. We've done thousands. BUT--Every patient is an individual and will be treated as an individual to have the best results with the lowest possibly risk and the highest possible cure rate. These excellent results also shows that we follow our patients so we always know how we are doing. We don't guess!

Suggested Readings:

Follow our blog on Twitter and get cool and interesting parathyroid stories written by our experts, guest experts and some of our parathyroid patients! @parathyroidblog