Houstonia Magazine Unveils its 2023 Top Doctors

We are thrilled to extend our heartfelt congratulations to fifteen members of our esteemed faculty within the Department of Surgery who have earned the prestigious title of 'Top Doctors' in Houstonia Magazine's latest rankings. Join us in celebrating their outstanding achievements.

American College of Surgeons Names Chamely as Resident & Associate Society Liaison

We are delighted to announce that Dr. Elias Chamely, a Staff Physician within the Department of Surgery's Division of General Surgery, has been selected as the Resident and Associate Society Liaison Representative for the American College of Surgeons Surgeon Well-being Workgroup. In this capacity, he will contribute his expertise to the Communications Sub-workgroup. Dr. Chamely's appointment to this vital position is for a three-year term.

Bridging Divides

Dr. Lillian Kao co-moderated a webinar program entitled: “Bridging Divides: Advancing Equality in Academic Surgery”, hosted on the Advances in Surgery (AIS) Channel on September 28, 2023. The event garnered a global audience, with 36,027 live viewers tuning in from 126 countries. The program was based on a panel that was held at the most recent American Surgical Association meeting. The panel was co-moderated by Dr. Mary Brandt, Distinguished Emeritus Professor of Surgery, Pediatrics, and Medical Ethics at Baylor College of Medicine. To view this panel of talks, visit the website: https://aischannel.com/past-surgical-events

Celebrating Learning Healthcare

On October 3-4, 2023, the Institute for Clinical Research and Learning Healthcare held a Learning Healthcare Symposium – A Celebration of 25 Years of Translating Evidence to Practice at UTHealth Houston. Dr. Richard Platt, Professor and Chair, Population Medicine Department, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute, gave the keynote address on “Advancing Learning Health by Facilitating Pragmatic Trials in Everyday Patient Care.” Dr. Lillian Kao gave an update on “Opportunities for Learning Health in Surgery.” Her talk highlighted research across the Departments of Surgery and Pediatric Surgery by a number of faculty and research fellows. Other surgical faculty presented their work throughout the two-day symposium, including Drs. John Harvin, David Meyer, and Julie Holihan. Dr. Dalya Ferguson, a recently graduated general surgery resident and current abdominal wall reconstruction fellow, provided a cost analysis of a randomized trial in pediatric perforated appendicitis; her senior faculty mentor was Dr. KuoJen Tsao. 

Saif Wins Award to Attend Society of Asian Academic Surgeons Meeting

Areeba Saif received the Society of Asian Academic Surgeons (SAAS) - Association of Women Surgeons (AWS) Resident Research Travel Award to attend the 8^th annual SAAS meeting held September 14-15 in Baltimore, Maryland. She presented two projects from her research at the National Institutes of Health, one of which was featured in the plenary session.

SAAS was founded several years ago to prepare future generations of academic surgeons to succeed. "Asian" is broadly defined to include any nationality from the Asian continent. Furthermore, the society is open to anyone of any ethnicity interested in promoting underrepresented populations in any area of academic surgery. Drs. Tien Ko and Lillian Kao were two of the nine founding members of this now thriving society.

If you are interested in applying for membership in SAAS, please visit the following website: https://www.asiansurgeon.org/online-registration/

Next year's meeting will be held in New Orleans with Tulane University hosting.

General Surgery Program Resident, Areeba Saif, MD presenting.

Drs. Lillian Kao and Tien Ko.

Division of Acute Care Surgery Attends 82nd AAST Meeting En Masse

Kao Gives Expert Surgeon Lecture at National Trauma Meeting

The 82 Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma (AAST) and the Clinical Congress of Acute Care Surgery was held September 20-23 in Anaheim, California. Chief of Acute Care Surgery, Dr. Lillian Kao, gave the Expert Surgeon Lecture entitled "Challenging Current Notions about Quality Improvement and Research." A manuscript based on the talk will be featured in the January issue of the Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery.

Dr. Kao also taught at the inaugural AAST Leadership Academy. This initiative is geared toward AAST fellows at least five years out from their final training program and on a leadership trajectory. The academy's mission is to provide a core set of leadership and administrative skills, ongoing professional development, and a venue for community building and networking for acute care surgery leaders.

UTHealth Houston Surgical Trainees Receive Awards to Attend AAST

Drs. Art Boyev, third-year surgery resident, and Miranda Wood, first-year acute care surgery fellow, received 20forTwenty In-Training Scholarships to attend the AAST Meeting. More information about them and their awards can be found on the AAST website.

Dr. Cotton Serves as a “Shark Tank” Research Judge

Dr. Bryan Cotton participated in the first Annual AAST Research Day where participants had the opportunity to pitch their own research ideas to a group of expert panelists, who provided feedback in real-time. The group then divided into multiple break-out sessions to discuss specific challenges in various research disciplines, including basic and translational science, health services and outcomes research, qualitative research and mixed methods, and others. Following this, Dr. Cotton was one of the panelists for AAST “Shark Tank” where the top research ideas were then presented to the “Shark Tank” and each participant received live feedback to improve his or her proposal’s likelihood of funding.

Other Notable News from AAST

Multiple representatives from UTHealth Houston presented their research:

• Oral presentation (Military States COT Resident Paper Competition): Emergency Vascular Repairs in Trauma: Predictors of Poor Prognosis and a Novel Scoring System (Presenter: Artem Boyev, DO; Senior author: Michelle McNutt, MD)
• Oral presentation (Military States COT Resident Paper Competition): Chemoprophylaxis? An Evaluation of 1390 TBI Patients (Presenter: Keith Burczak, DO; Senior author: Thaddeus Puzio)
• Oral presentation: "Door-to-Prophylaxis Time" as a Novel Quality Improvement Metric in Prevention of Venous Thromboembolism Following Traumatic Injury (Presenter: Mike Van Gent, DO; Senior author: Bryan Cotton, MD, MPH)
• Oral presentation: Ketamine for Acute Pain After Trauma (KAPT): A Pragmatic, Randomized Clinical Trial (Presenter: James Klugh, MD, MS; Senior author: John Harvin, MD, MS)
• Poster presentation: Getting to the Heart of Blunt Cardiac Injury (Presenter: Zachary Terrell; Senior author: David Meyer, MD, MS)

Dr. Sasha Adams, Associate Professor of Surgery, participated in the inaugural AAST Stop the Falls Community Event, sponsored by the Geriatric Trauma Committee.

Drs. Mokunfayo Fajemisin and Stephanie Martinez Ugarte participated in the 2nd AAST Pipeline Mentorship Program to encourage high school students to pursue a career in medicine and the sciences.

At the Bedside: New focal therapies at UTHealth Houston make prostate cancer treatment easier on patients

One in eight men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in his lifetime and 11 years ago, Morton McPhail, now 73, became one of them. Fortunately, time was on his side.

The prostate gland, found only in men, produces seminal fluid. Risk factors for prostate cancer include age (most cases are diagnosed in men over 65), family history, and inheriting a gene mutation. Having a father or brother with prostate cancer doubles the risk of developing the disease. Mutations of the BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes, linked to ovarian and breast cancer in some families, can also increase the risk of prostate cancer in men.

Prostate cancer is generally slow-growing and, if found early, can be successfully treated. The prostate-specific antigen test, or PSA, in combination with new techniques in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), can diagnose early disease.

Read the full story featuring Dr. Steven Canfield…

33rd Annual SBAS Meeting

The 33^rd Annual SBAS (Society of Black Academic Surgeons) Meeting was held from September 28th-30th, hosted this year by the University of Michigan. SBAS was founded to improve health, advance science, and foster careers of African American and other underrepresented minority surgeons. Dr. Chioma Obinero, who has been doing research with the Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, presented her work titled "We are Moving the Needle: Improving Racial Disparities in Immediate Breast Reconstruction." This large data project used ten years of data from the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP). These "big data" projects can be highly challenging, and nearly 120,000 patients were involved in her final analysis! This important work was also presented at The Texas Society of Plastic Surgeons' annual meeting in San Antonio earlier in September. Congratulations to Dr. Obinero!

Dr. Chioma Obinero presenting at the SBAS Meeting.

Drs. Chioma Obinero, Ritha Belizaire, and Danielle Mumford.

Dr. Ritha Belizaire, alongside Henri Ford, the President-Elect of the American College of Surgeons.

Patricia Turner, Executive Director & CEO of the American College of Surgeons, pictured with Dr. Ritha Belizaire.

Publications of Note

Strathe A, Horn DB, Larsen MS, Rubino D, Sørrig R, Tran MTD, Wharton S, Overgaard RV. A model-based approach to predict individual weight loss with semaglutide in people with overweight or obesity. Diabetes Obes Metab. 2023 Jul 9. doi: 10.1111/dom.15211. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 37424165.

Benjamin AJ, Young AJ, Holcomb JB, Fox EE, Wade CE, Meador C, Cannon JW. Early Prediction of Massive Transfusion for Patients with Traumatic Hemorrhage: Development of a Multivariable Machine Learning Model. Ann Surg Open. 2023 Aug 16;4(3):e314. doi: 10.1097/AS9.0000000000000314. PMID: 37746616; PMCID: PMC10513183.

Dixon A, Kenny JE, Buzzard L, Holcomb J, Bulger E, Wade C, Fabian T, Schreiber M; PROPPR Study Group. Acute respiratory distress syndrome, acute kidney injury, and mortality after trauma are associated with increased circulation of syndecan-1, soluble thrombomodulin, and receptor for advanced glycation end products. J Trauma Acute Care Surg. 2023 Sep 6. doi: 10.1097/TA.0000000000004096. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 37678154.

Dodwad SM, Isbell KD, Mueck KM, Klugh JM, Meyer DE, Wade CE, Kao LS, Harvin JA. Patient-Reported Outcomes Following Severe Abdominal Trauma: A Secondary Analysis of the Damage Control Laparotomy Trial. J Surg Res. 2023 Sep 14;293:57-63. doi: 10.1016/j.jss.2023.06.042. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 37716101.

Durbin S, Brito A, Johnson A, Cotton B, Rowell S, Schreiber M. Association of Fibrinolysis Phenotype with Patient Outcomes following Traumatic Brain Injury. J Trauma Acute Care Surg. 2023 Sep 13. doi: 10.1097/TA.0000000000004122. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 37700441.

Mankame AR, Sanders KE, Cardenas JC. Time-dependent changes in proinflammatory mediators are associated with trauma-related venous thromboembolism. Shock. 2023 Aug 28. doi: 10.1097/SHK.0000000000002216. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 37647085.

Quinton K, Guy-Frank CJ, Syed S, Klugh JM, Dhanani NH, Adibi SS, Kao LS. Poor Oral Health in Trauma Intensive Care Unit Patients: Application of a Novel Oral Health Score. Surg Infect (Larchmt). 2023 Sep;24(7):657-662. doi: 10.1089/sur.2023.171. PMID: 37695683.



Silver DS, Sperry JL, Beiriger J, Lu L, Guyette FX, Wisniewski S, Moore EE, Schreiber M, Joseph B, Wilson CT, Cotton B, Ostermayer D, Fox EE, Harbrecht BG, Patel M, Brown JB. Association Between Emergency Medical Service Agency Volume and Mortality in Trauma Patients. Ann Surg. 2023 Aug 28. doi: 10.1097/SLA.0000000000006087. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 37638408.

Eisenberg MA, Deboever N, Mills AC, Egyud MR, Hofstetter WL, Mehran RJ, Rice DC, Rajaram R, Sepesi B, Swisher SG, Walsh GL, Vaporciyan AA, Antonoff MB. Impact of Travel Distance on Receipt of Indicated Adjuvant Therapy in Resected Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer. J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg. 2023 Sep 9:S0022-5223(23)00765-1. doi: 10.1016/j.jtcvs.2023.08.049. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 37696428.

Iroz CB, Schäfer WLA, Johnson JK, Ager MS, Huang R, Balbale SN, Stulberg JJ; Opioid Agreement Delphi Group. The development of a safe opioid use agreement for surgical care using a modified Delphi method. PLoS One. 2023 Sep 26;18(9):e0291969. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0291969. PMID: 37751431; PMCID: PMC10522037.

Antonoff MB, Kui N, Sun R, Deboever N, Hofstetter W, Mehran RJ, Morris VK, Rice DC, Swisher SG, Vaporciyan AA, Walsh GL, Rajaram R. Factors Associated with Receipt of Pulmonary Metastasectomy in Patients with Lung-Limited Metastatic Colorectal Cancer: Disparities in Care and Impact on Overall Survival. J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg. 2023 Sep 8:S0022-5223(23)00766-3. doi: 10.1016/j.jtcvs.2023.08.051. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 37690624.

Hussain MR, Ali FS, Tangri A, Rashtak S, Joseph-Talreja M, Mutha PR, Wadhwa V, Guha S, DaVee RT, Thosani N. The incremental yield of adenoma detection with I-Scan versus high-definition white light colonoscopy-a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized studies. Int J Colorectal Dis. 2023 Sep 27;38(1):240. doi: 10.1007/s00384-023-04533-3. PMID: 37755588.

Aloysius MM, Nikumbh T, Goyal H, Thosani N. High-risk T1 colorectal cancer requires radical resection. Gastrointest Endosc. 2023 Oct;98(4):677-679. doi: 10.1016/j.gie.2023.04.2082. PMID: 37734821.

ASGE standards of practice committee; Forbes N, Elhanafi SE, Al-Haddad MA, Thosani NC, Draganov PV, Othman MO, Ceppa EP, Kaul V, Feely MM, Sahin I, Buxbaum JL, Calderwood AH, Chalhoub JM, Coelho-Prabhu N, Desai M, Fujii-Lau LL, Kohli DR, Kwon RS, Machicado JD, Marya NB, Pawa S, Ruan W, Sheth SG, Storm AC, Thiruvengadam NR, Qumseya BJ; (ASGE Standards of Practice Committee Chair). American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy guideline on endoscopic submucosal dissection for the management of early esophageal and gastric cancers: summary and recommendations. Gastrointest Endosc. 2023 Sep;98(3):271-284. doi: 10.1016/j.gie.2023.03.015. Epub 2023 Jul 25. PMID: 37498266.

Al-Haddad MA, Elhanafi SE, Forbes N, Thosani NC, Draganov PV, Othman MO, Ceppa EP, Kaul V, Feely MM, Sahin I, Ruan Y, Sadeghirad B, Morgan RL, Buxbaum JL, Calderwood AH, Chalhoub JM, Coelho-Prabhu N, Desai M, Fujii-Lau LL, Kohli DR, Kwon RS, Machicado JD, Marya NB, Pawa S, Ruan W, Sheth SG, Storm AC, Thiruvengadam NR, Qumseya BJ; (ASGE Standards of Practice Committee Chair). American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy guideline on endoscopic submucosal dissection for the management of early esophageal and gastric cancers: methodology and review of evidence. Gastrointest Endosc. 2023 Sep;98(3):285-305.e38. doi: 10.1016/j.gie.2023.03.030. Epub 2023 Jul 25. PMID: 37498265.

Pawa S, Kwon RS, Fishman DS, Thosani NC, Shergill A, Grover SC, Al-Haddad M, Amateau SK, Buxbaum JL, Calderwood AH, Chalhoub JM, Coelho-Prabhu N, Desai M, Elhanafi SE, Forbes N, Fujii-Lau LL, Kohli DR, Machicado JD, Marya NB, Ruan W, Sheth SG, Storm AC, Thiruvengadam NR, Wani S, Qumseya BJ; (ASGE Standards of Practice Committee Chair 2020-2023). American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy guideline on the role of ergonomics for prevention of endoscopy-related injury: methodology and review of evidence. Gastrointest Endosc. 2023 Oct;98(4):492-512.e1. doi: 10.1016/j.gie.2023.05.055. Epub 2023 May 26. PMID: 37245721.

Pawa S, Kwon RS, Fishman DS, Thosani NC, Shergill A, Grover SC, Al-Haddad M, Amateau SK, Buxbaum JL, Calderwood AH, Chalhoub JM, Coelho-Prabhu N, Desai M, Elhanafi SE, Forbes N, Fujii-Lau LL, Kohli DR, Machicado JD, Marya NB, Ruan W, Sheth SG, Storm AC, Thiruvengadam NR, Qumseya BJ; (ASGE Standards of Practice Committee Chair, 2020-2023). American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy guideline on the role of ergonomics for prevention of endoscopy-related injury: summary and recommendations. Gastrointest Endosc. 2023 Oct;98(4):482-491. doi: 10.1016/j.gie.2023.05.056. Epub 2023 May 27. PMID: 37245720.

Jessica Buicko, MD

Associate Professor

Elective General Surgery / Breast Surgical Oncology and Endocrine Surgery

Rodrigo Donalisio de Silva, MD

Associate Professor

Urology

Rupak Kulkarni, MD

Associate Professor

Organ Transplant

Bharat Puchakayala, MD

Assistant Professor

Elective General Surgery / Interventional Gastroenterology

Danielle Sobol, MD

Assistant Professor

Plastics & Reconstructive Surgery

Klara Sputova, MD

Assistant Professor

Plastics & Reconstructive Surgery

Practice Makes Perfect!

As part of the newly revamped resident skills curriculum, spearheaded by Dr. Melissa Stewart, the PGY 1 and 2 general surgical residents underwent a skills assessment this September. The first-year residents were required to demonstrate proficiency in basic knot tying and suturing, and the second years worked on more advanced skills, such as central venous catheter and chest tube placement. Confidence and competence in these skills are important in their day-to-day jobs as junior residents and will be the backbone of their surgical skills throughout their careers. These sessions allow them to improve their technical expertise in a safe environment and play a pivotal role in shaping skilled surgeons who can provide high-quality care. 

SOCIAL MEDIA SPOTLIGHT

#McGovernMedSchool will host an online Town Hall Meeting, at 12:30 p.m., Oct. 4. Be sure to submit your questions anonymously in advance to go.uth.edu/question

A quick response can save a life. Tuesday, @mcgovernmed students and staff had the opportunity to learn or refresh their knowledge of hands-only CPR and how to use an automated external defibrillator (AED), thanks to the @uthealthhoustonem’s #UTHealthHouston Saves a Life training session led by Jasmine S. Ginn, MD.

VR ECMO training 😮

Editorial Team: Dr. Lillian S. Kao, Dr. Casey B. Duncan, Dr. Peter A. Walker, and Dr. Elias A. Chamely

For content submissions, email Sophia.M.Solis@uth.tmc.edu.