Dr. Joshua David, MD

Dr. Joshua David is a plastic and reconstructive surgeon whose practice centers on craniofacial and reconstructive surgery of the face, head, and neck. His clinical focus includes congenital craniofacial differences, cleft lip and palate, pediatric and adult facial trauma, orthognathic and maxillomandibular advancement surgery for obstructive sleep apnea, facial feminization surgery, and complex facial reconstruction.

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He completed his integrated residency in plastic and reconstructive surgery at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, one of the oldest and largest plastic surgery training programs in the United States, where he served as Academic Chief Resident. He then completed fellowship training in pediatric craniomaxillofacial surgery at The Hospital for Sick Children and the University of Toronto, named the world's best children's hospital in Newsweek and Statista's 2026 World's Best Specialized Hospitals ranking. He subsequently completed an AO Craniomaxillofacial International Fellowship at Sheba Medical Center in Israel, an advanced program in the management of complex craniofacial and maxillofacial conditions.

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Dr. David earned his medical degree from Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, graduating with Distinction in Research, and his undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan, where he received University Honors and the William J. Branstrom Freshman Award. Between medical school years he completed a two-year pre-doctoral research fellowship in the Hansjörg Wyss Department of Plastic Surgery at NYU Langone Health.

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He is an active clinical and translational researcher with more than twenty peer-reviewed publications and four book chapters spanning craniofacial and cleft surgery, pediatric vascular anomalies, reconstructive microsurgery, surgical education, and the molecular biology of impaired wound healing. His laboratory work on Nrf2 and Keap1 signaling in diabetic wound healing has been published in journals including Cell Reports, Biomaterials, and the American Journal of Transplantation, and he has presented at national meetings including the American Association of Plastic Surgeons, the Plastic Surgery Research Council, the American Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Association, and the American Diabetes Association. His research has been recognized with first-place awards from the New York Regional Society of Plastic Surgeons Resident Research Competition and, at UPMC, at both the Department of Plastic Surgery Research Day and the Quality Innovation Challenge. He has also received travel scholarships from The Aesthetic Society Education and Research Foundation and the American Association for Hand Surgery.

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Dr. David serves on the Mentorship and Outreach Task Force of the American Society of Craniofacial Surgeons, which promotes interest in craniofacial and pediatric plastic surgery through mentorship, outreach, and workforce research.

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Global surgery has been a sustained part of his work. He has traveled with international surgical teams providing free cleft lip, cleft palate, and craniofacial reconstruction to children in low-resource settings, including missions with Smile Bangladesh to Jaffna, Sri Lanka and Dhaka, Bangladesh, and with Nuoy Reconstructive International to Hanoi, Vietnam. Earlier in his career he served as an ambulance first responder with Magen David Adom, Israel's national emergency medical service, in Tel Aviv.

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Alongside his clinical training, Dr. David co-founded Copernicus Health, a mobile health platform designed to support patients with chronic disease in underserved communities, which received more than $50,000 in competitive grant funding, including first-place awards from the Nicholson Foundation's Healthcare Delivery Challenge and Idea-a-thon.

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Outside of the operating room, Dr. David is a three-time Ironman finisher, having completed full-distance races in Lake Placid, Mont-Tremblant, and Florianópolis, Brazil. He speaks English and Hebrew, and his interests include artificial intelligence in surgery, science communication, and the history of medicine.