Dr. Susan Pitt is an endocrine surgeon and Associate Professor at Michigan Medicine, where she directs the Endocrine Surgery Health Services Research Program. Her clinical practice spans the thyroid, parathyroid, and adrenal glands, with deep expertise in papillary thyroid cancer, functional adrenal tumors, and complex parathyroid disease.
Her research asks a sharp question: why do we so often treat low-risk cancers too aggressively? Working at the intersection of behavioral science and surgery, she examines how fear and anxiety — in patients, physicians, and the system itself — drive overtreatment, and she studies the barriers that keep less invasive paths like active surveillance from being offered or chosen. Her wider interests range across novel behavioral interventions, AI, and communication — all in service of improving the quality of thyroid cancer care and the lives of patients living with and surviving this disease.
A graduate of Boston College, the Medical College of Wisconsin, and Washington University (where she trained in surgery and earned a Master's in Population Health Science), she completed her endocrine fellowship at Brigham & Women's Hospital. She is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons and a recipient of the AMWA Exceptional Mentor Award — a recognition that reflects how she shows up not only for her patients, but for the next generation of surgeons.
"Hoping to enrich the lives of those around me in the process." — Dr. Pitt