A graduate of College of the Holy Cross and the Yale School of Medicine, Dr. Doherty completed residency training at UCSF, including fellowship at the National Cancer Institute. He joined Washington University School of Medicine in 1993, and became Professor of Surgery in 2001. From 2002-2012, he was the Norman Thompson Professor of Surgery at the University of Michigan. From 2012 to 2016, Dr. Doherty was the Utley Professor and Chair of Surgery at Boston University and Surgeon-in-Chief at Boston Medical Center before becoming the Moseley Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School where he is also the Chair of Surgery for the Mass General Brigham system.

Dr. Doherty was trained in surgical oncology, and has focused mainly on surgical diseases of the thyroid, parathyroid, endocrine pancreas and adrenal glands as well as management of Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia syndromes. His bibliography includes over 300 peer-reviewed articles, reviews and book chapters, and several edited books.

He currently serves as Past-President of the American Association of Endocrine Surgeons, the International Association of Endocrine Surgeons, and the Society of Surgical Chairs, Treasurer of the International Society of Surgery, Reviews Editor of JAMA Surgery, and Editor-in-Chief of AccessSurgery.