Dr. M. Brian Harkins, MD, FACS

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Get to know General Surgeon Dr. M. Brian Harkins, who serves patients in Texas.

A multi-awarded surgeon, Dr. Harkins has been providing caring state-of-the-art surgical service in the northwest Houston area since 1997. He has accomplished literally thousands of robotic, laparoscopic, and open surgical procedures in all areas of general surgery.

He is an independent affiliate of the Surgical Advanced Specialty Center, providing surgical care in a 10,000-square-foot office that he designed and built in Tomball, Texas in 2003. 

His office was created to be a comfortable and private setting where technologically advanced health care is implemented. It is an exceptional environment for both his patients and his team, proudly serving many areas in the southeast and central United States, as well as those who call Northwest Houston home.

Born in the beautiful Smoky Mountains of Tennessee, Dr. Harkins’ family traveled a lot in the Southeast. The family eventually settled in Lake Charles, Louisiana, where he met a girl who became his high school sweetheart. They eventually married after their senior year in May of 1978.

The two had a traditional wedding, surrounded by their loving family members and friends. Dr. Harkins joined the military in 1978 for educational opportunities and a secure start to his new family. His first duty station was in North Dakota at Grand Forks Air Force Base. He chose this “guaranteed base station”, so he could begin his educational career at the University of North Dakota. In the daytime, he performed his duties as a nuclear missile mechanic, and during the evenings and weekends, he attended his university classes. After two years, he transferred with his wife and newborn son to Baton Rouge to continue with the military while attending college at LSU.

In 1984, Dr. Harkins was accepted to attend LSU Medical School. He was able to apply for a military scholarship to cover the cost of his medical education. He worked at Charity Hospital in New Orleans as part of his medical education. After he earned his medical degree, he served as a general surgery resident in Augusta, Georgia at Eisenhower Army Medical Center. As a resident, he was given early exposure to the minimally invasive surgery field. This was before the practice of laparoscopy had been adopted by most medical institutions throughout the country.

His interest in technology made him an excellent candidate for learning this exciting new surgical technique. At his graduation, Dr. Harkins received two awards: Outstanding Graduating Resident and Outstanding Resident Laparoscopic Surgeon. His first duty station as a new surgeon was in Anniston, Alabama, at Fort McClellan, where he stayed for three years and was awarded for his service as the Chief of Specialty Care at Noble Army Community Hospital.

When Dr. Harkins left the military, he was given an opportunity to practice medicine in Tomball, Texas. He has centered his surgical practice there since 1997. He established his practice in Northwest Houston for years in several area hospitals. 

Today, Dr. Harkins practices exclusively at HCA Houston Healthcare – Tomball. In 1997, laparoscopy was relatively underutilized in Tomball, and Dr. Harkins brought his experience in this innovative surgical platform to the local community. He continued to introduce numerous evolving aspects of laparoscopy to the area, imparting his knowledge to other physicians via lectures and seminars.

Having always kept abreast of the surgical advances, Dr. Harkins felt the development of the robotic surgical platform in 2014 had come of age and offered benefit to his busy surgical practice. This is primarily due to the introduction of the da Vinci Xi, an advanced robotic device that offers patients an even better experience with minimally invasive surgery than laparoscopy has provided. 

Having converted most of his open and laparoscopic practice to robotic surgery, Dr. Harkins is now recognized as one of the top 1% general surgeons in the world in experience utilizing the da Vinci Xi. He feels very proud of the robotics team at HCA Houston Healthcare – Tomball and serves as the hospital’s Robotic Surgeon Champion. He also serves in a high level role as the Medical Director of Robotics for the HCA Gulf Coast Division.

A Fellow of the American College of Surgeons (FACS), he is board-certified in general surgery by the American Board of Surgery (ABS). The ABS is an independent, non-profit organization located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, founded for the purpose of certifying surgeons who have met a defined standard of education, training, and knowledge.

General surgery is a surgical specialty that focuses on abdominal contents including the esophagus, stomach, small bowel, colon, liver, pancreas, gallbladder, appendix and bile ducts, and often the thyroid gland. A general surgeon performs a wide range of abdominal surgeries for many forms of intestinal and abdominal wall neoplasms, gallbladder disease, gastric and pancreatic disease. They follow the patient through critical care and surgical recovery all the way to outpatient care. 

A proud grandparent, Dr. Harkins feels very fortunate that all of his four, now-adult children, still live in the area. His family has always been a top priority in his life, and he enjoys spending time with them. “I never dreamed, having moved around so much when I was younger, that I would be so blessed to be able to see all of my children and now grandchildren on a regular basis!”

Delighted to call the Tomball area home, he also appreciates spending time outdoors and engaging in his longtime hobby of building things. 

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