Dr. Joseph Shrager practices all aspects of thoracic surgery but has specials interest and experience in lung cancer, surgery for emphysema, and mediastinal diseases. His clinical publications reflect these interests. In all cases, he looks towards minimally invasive approaches where appropriate, including VATS (thoracoscopic) lobectomy for early stage lung cancer and transcervical thymectomy.

In clinical research, Dr. Shrager has been an innovator studying outcomes in a variety of areas within Thoracic Surgery including: parenchyma-sparing operations and minimally invasive resections for lung cancer, transcervical thymectomy for myasthenia gravis, and surgical treatment of emphysema.

In the lab, Dr. Shrager is focused on the impact of disease states upon the diaphragm. His group published the seminal paper in The New England Journal of Medicine describing diaphragm atrophy associated with mechanical ventilation.