Dr. Sevdenur Cizginer, MD, MPH, AGSF, is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and a physician-scientist at the Center for Optimal Aging and Serious Illness at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). She provides clinical care at MGH and teaches at Harvard Medical School. Double board-certified in Internal Medicine and Geriatric Medicine, Dr. Cizginer has dedicated over a decade to delivering comprehensive geriatrics care for frail older surgical patients with complex medical and cognitive conditions.

As Director of Implementation Science Research for a multicomponent age-friendly initiative across nine Mass General Brigham hospitals, she leads efforts to embed evidence-based interventions into real-world settings. Her work bridges geriatrics, surgery, health services research, and implementation science fostering interdisciplinary collaboration to advance care. Through her research, clinical practice, and leadership, she designs, implements, and evaluates systems-level interventions that improve outcomes for vulnerable older surgical patients.

A national leader in geriatric surgery, Dr. Cizginer has partnered with more than 60 U.S. health systems to implement standards that enhance surgical outcomes for older adults. She is the founder of the pioneering Surgery Optimization of Senior Care and Recovery (OSCAR) Program at Brown University, an award-winning model of collaboration between geriatrics, palliative medicine, and surgery that improved patient outcomes while reducing costs.

Her contributions have been recognized with prestigious honors, including the Charles C.J. Carpenter Outstanding Physician of the Year Award—TMH’s highest honor, which she received as its youngest-ever recipient and K76 Paul B. Beeson Emerging Leaders Career Development Award from the National Institute on Aging.

Dr. Cizginer’s current research program employs implementation science to improve care transitions through tailored geriatrics surgery care model in older colorectal surgery patients.

She lives in Winchester, Massachusetts, with her husband and three children.