General Info

“I love thinking on the go, working with my hands to fix things, and helping people. Being a surgeon is a great blend of these three things. I also enjoy the immediate feedback of doing surgery and usually knowing right away if something will work for the patient or not.” Dr. Matzie began thinking of becoming a physician during her freshman year in college after she underwent an operation. While the procedure was successful, she says the surgeon was not very personable and no one on the surgical team explained the process and what to expect afterwards. She left the hospital thinking there must be a “better way.” Throughout her medical career she has striven to make her interactions with patients that ‘better’ way. After receiving her bachelor’s degree from Harvard College, Dr. Matzie entered the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in Philadelphia. She earned her Doctor of Medicine degree in 2002 and then completed a residency in general surgery at Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston. During this time she also completed fellowships in surgical critical care and clinical research at the Brigham. She then went to the Cleveland Clinic Florida where she completed her fellowship training in colon and rectal surgery in June 2010. Dr. Matzie chose to specialize in colorectal surgery because of the variety of activities, diagnoses and procedures it offers a practicing physician. She recognizes that performing surgery – whether a five-minute procedure or a complex, five-hour operation - to physically cure or palliate disease is an amazing gift and a privilege. At the Cleveland Clinic, Dr. Matzie did extensive training in advanced laparoscopy for small bowel, colon and rectal surgeries, and she performs these at Fairfax Colon & Rectal Surgery. She also performs Transanal Endoscopic Microsurgery (TEM), a minimally invasive method of removing large rectal polyps and very early cancers not amenable to colonoscopic excision or other transanal techniques