TGH Harbourside Medical Tower

Kaley Ann Walter is a certified physician assistant with experience working in thoracic and lung transplantation surgery, most recently at UF Health Shands Hospital in Gainesville, Fla. While at Shands, she acted as a first assistant in the operating room on robotic-assisted, thoracoscopic and open thoracic cases. Walter is experienced using the cutting-edge da Vinci Xi Surgical System. She has participated in lung transplantation procurement and organ transplantation. She has also managed highly complex medical-surgical patients and ICU patients.

Among her outpatient experience, Walter has evaluated preoperative and postoperative patients independently on a weekly basis and established productive relationships through responsive communication with her patients.

Walter received her Master of Physician Assistant Studies and Bachelor of Health Science from the University of Florida. She is affiliated with the American Academy of Physician Assistants (AAPA) and the Florida Academy of Physician Assistants (FAPA).

Dr. K. Eric Sommers is one of the most experienced thoracic surgeons in Florida, having performed more than 6,300 cardiothoracic surgeries - including over 4,000 for lung cancer - as well as hundreds of robotic assisted procedures using the da Vinci® System.

Dr. Sommers' skill and expertise in minimally invasive lung and chest surgery have earned him national recognition. His robotic lobectomy technique for lung cancer is being utilized as a teaching tool for other thoracic surgeons.

Dr. Sommers' surgical skill is matched by his extensive teaching and administrative experience. In addition to spending more than a decade on the medical staff at the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center, he was also, the medical Staff Executive Committee President at Moffitt, an associate Professor in the Department of Surgery at USF Health Morsani College of Medicine, a founding surgical director of the Tampa General Hospital lung transplant program, and the director of the Heart Transplant Group at Tampa General Hospital.

Dr. Sommers has won numerous awards and has over 50 publications, presentations and abstracts in his name.