Peter Tze-Wei Yu

Biography

Peter Tze-Wei Yu, M.D., M.P.H., F.A.C.S., F.A.A.P., is Section Chair of Pediatric General and Thoracic Surgery and Director of Surgical Research and Surgical Education in the Division of Pediatric Surgery at Children's Hospital of Orange County (CHOC). He also holds appointments as HS Associate Professor in the Departments of Surgery and Pediatrics at the University of California, Irvine School of Medicine. Yu is board-certified in pediatric surgery, surgical critical care, and general surgery, and completed his pediatric surgery fellowship training at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and his surgical critical care fellowship at Boston Children's Hospital. He received his M.D. from the University of Missouri School of Medicine and his M.P.H. from The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Yu is the founder of the Fetal Care Center of Southern California, a joint program of CHOC and UCI Health that provides coordinated care for maternal-fetal dyads diagnosed with congenital anomalies. His research focuses on fetal and neonatal surgical conditions—including congenital diaphragmatic hernia, congenital pulmonary airway malformation, and related conditions requiring extracorporeal membrane oxygenation—as well as health disparities in pediatric trauma and access to specialized care. He is Associate Program Director for the CHOC/UCI pediatric surgery fellowship and previously served as Chair of the CHOC Department of Surgery. Yu is an active member of the North American Fetal Therapy Network, serving on its Scientific Review, Publications, Quality/Outcomes, and Advocacy committees, and is a representative to NAFTNet for CHOC and UCI.

Yu is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons and a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics, and is a member of the American Pediatric Surgical Association, the International Fetal Medicine and Surgery Society, and the Pediatric Trauma Society, among other professional organizations. He serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Pediatric Surgery Case Reports and Translational Pediatrics, and reviews manuscripts for the Journal of Pediatric Surgery, the Journal of the American College of Surgeons, and the Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery, among other journals. The Fetal Care Center of Southern California has received philanthropic support including a $10,000,000 gift from the Argyros Family Foundation.

Education

• B.A. in Psychology, Stanford University, 1999
• M.D., University of Missouri School of Medicine, 2005
• M.P.H., The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 2018

Distinctions

• The Louise S. Schnaufer Endowed Fellow in Pediatric Surgery
• Orange County Business Journal 2021 'OC 500', 2021
• Orange County Medical Association Physicians of Excellence, 2022-2025