Walter J. McCarthy, MD, MS, is chief of the Section of Vascular Surgery and associate chairman of the Department of Cardiovascular-Thoracic Surgery at Rush University Medical Center. He is also the program director of the vascular surgery fellowship at Rush.

McCarthy received his medical degree at Wayne State University in Detroit. He completed a residency in general surgery followed by a fellowship in general vascular surgery at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. He later received an MS degree in epidemiology at Harvard University.

Prior to coming to Rush, McCarthy was an associate professor of surgery at Northwestern University Medical Center. He is now a professor of cardiovascular-thoracic surgery at Rush and has worked at the Medical Center for more than a decade.

McCarthy’s clinical interests include adult arterial vascular disease and venous disease. This includes the endovascular, medical and surgical management of both venous, arterial occlusive and aneurysm disease. He is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons and a member of the Society for Vascular Surgery, the Illinois Surgical Society and Chicago Surgical Society, among many other professional organizations. His honors include being listed as one of Chicago's top vascular surgeons by Chicago magazine. He has served as an ad hoc reviewer for top journals in his field, has authored or coauthored more than 100 original articles and has presented widely at conferences around the country.