Surgery and Perioperative Care Annual Research Symposium
The Department of Surgery and Perioperative Care Annual Research Symposium aims to enhance awareness of research taking place in the department and provide networking and presentation opportunities for researchers.
All faculty, residents and students conducting research in or with the Department of Surgery and Perioperative Care are invited to submit abstracts to the symposium.
Upcoming Symposium
9th Annual Research Symposium
April 3, 2026, 10 a.m.–4 p.m.
Visiting Professor: Andrew P. Loehrer, M.D., MPH, associate professor of surgery at Dartmouth Geisel School of Medicine and associate professor at Dartmouth Institute.
Keynote Address: “Strategies to Understand and Address Cancer Inequities Through Transdisciplinary Research”
Program Overview
- 10:00-10:05 a.m. — Welcome and opening remarks
Kevin Bozic, M.D., MBA and Alex Haynes, M.D., MPH - 10:05-11:05 a.m. — Collaboration showcase
12-minute presentations with 3 minutes of Q&A- Farshid Alambeigi, Ph.D., associate professor, Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering
- S. Craig Watkins, Ph.D., professor, Moody College of Communication
- Adam Bush, Ph.D., assistant professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering
- Ann Majewicz Fey, Ph.D., associate professor, Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering
- 11:05-11:55 a.m. — Visiting professor address
Andrew Loehrer, M.D., MPH, Dartmouth Geisel School of Medicine - 11:55-12:10 p.m. — Break
Box lunches - 12:10-1:30 p.m. — Abstract session 1
10 6-minute presentations followed by 2 minutes Q&A - 1:30-1:40 p.m. — Break
Coffee - 1:40-3:00 p.m. — Abstract session 2
10 6-minute presentations followed by 2 minutes Q&A - 3:00-3:45 p.m. — Poster session and networking
Small bites - 3:45-4:00 p.m. — Awards and closing remarks
Alex Haynes, M.D., MPH
Past Symposia
8th Annual Research Symposium: April 11, 2025
Visiting professor: Lillian Kao, M.D., M.S., FACS, Jack H. Mayfield M.D. Chair in Surgery in the McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston
Awards
- Health Equity Award: Faith Noah, emergency medicine resident, “Understanding Social Determinants of Health in Emergency Department High Utilizers: A Cross-Sectional Study of Most Visited Patients (MVPs) in Austin, TX”
- Value Award: Mamadou Balde, medical student, “Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing (TDABC) to Measure Costs Associated with the Initial Resuscitation of Trauma Patients”
- Best Resident/Research Fellow Presentation: Philippe Dentino, orthopaedic value-based health care research fellow, “Prospective Identification of Factors Associated with Patient Experience in Musculoskeletal Specialty Care”
- Best Student Presentation: Kathia Nitsch, graduate student, “Do Healthcare Professionals Prefer AI-generated or Traditional Patient Education Materials?”
- Best Poster (two awards): Amanda Seymour, orthopaedic surgery resident, “Evolution of technique in composite alloplastic cranioplasty: single stage bone and soft tissue reconstruction with advanced virtual surgical planning”; Jessica Killingley, emergency medicine resident, “Linguistic Differences in Medical Student Evaluations of Faculty Based on Faculty Gender and Race/Ethnicity”
7th Annual Research Symposium: April 19, 2024
Visiting professor: Oluwadamilola “Lola” Fayanju, M.D., M.A., MPHS, FACS, Helen O. Dickens Presidential Associate Professor in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.
Awards:
- Health Equity Award: Sarah McWilliam, third-year student, “Time’s Up: An Investigation of Barriers to Care and Subsequent Treatment Initiation Among Women Recently Diagnosed with Breast Cancer”
- Value Award: Eustace Joseph, emergency medicine, third-year resident, “Evaluating the Effectiveness of Emergency Department Physical Therapists in Reducing Unnecessary Hospital Admissions and Decreasing Healthcare Costs”
- Best Resident/Research Fellow Presentation: George Sayegh, visiting researcher, “Does Adding Lidocaine to Corticosteroid Injections Reduce Pain Intensity During Injection? A Double-Blinded Randomized Controlled Equivalence Trial Using Bayesian Analyses”
- Best Student Presentation: Kayla Wilson, third-year student, “Reviving Donation: Exploring the Temporal and Geographic Utilization of Normothermic Regional Perfusion in Organ Donation after Circulatory Death”
- Best Poster (two awards): Alexander Carruth, first-year student, “Exploring Cluster-Based Patterns in the Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Journal: A 19-Year Multivariate Analysis of 11,312 Articles,” and Prachi Khanna, third-year student, “Beyond the Console: A Review of Robotic Surgical Education for Urologic Trainees”
6th Annual Research Symposium: May 5, 2023
Visiting professor: Karen Woo, M.D., Ph.D., professor of surgery at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.
Awards:
- Health Equity Award: Maya Eldin, third-year student, “Structural Racism, Residential Segregation, and Exposure to Trauma: The Persistent Impact of Redlining”
- Value Award: Kevin Smith, M.D., EMS fellow, “Prehospital Buprenorphine Administration for Opioid Use Disorder: Bridging the Gap”
- Best Resident/Postdoc Presentation (tie): David Cron, M.D., M.S., MGH general surgery resident, “Unintended consequences of a change to broader distribution of deceased-donor kidneys”; Elizabeth Duckworth, M.D., orthopaedic surgery, third-year resident, “Improved perioperative efficiency in orthopaedic trauma decreases staffing costs”
- Best Student Presentation (tie): Braidyn Lazenby, M.A., doctoral student, “Speaking Stoma: Creating a Communication Guide for Individuals with an Ostomy”; Sally You, masters student, “’I didn’t know where to find help’: A mixed methods evaluation of rectal cancer survivors in Texas”
- Best Poster (two awards given): Qais Zai, M.D., orthopaedic surgery, second-year resident, “Factors Associated with Incidence and Recurrence of Lower Back Pain: A large population analysis of the UK biobank” and Pegah Tehari, “Hospitalist Co-Management of Urethroplasty Patients in an Academic Center: Implementation of a Standardized Postoperative Care Model”
READ 2023 SYMPOSIUM ABSTRACTS »
5th Annual Research Symposium: May 6, 2022
Visiting professor: Rachel Patzer, Ph.D., MPH, professor and director of transplant health services and Outcomes Research Program, Emory University School of Medicine
Awards:
- Health Equity Award: James Bradford, third-year student, “Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Prehospital Pain Management”
- Value Award: Catherine Dawson, fourth-year student, “Understanding the Cost of Case Conference in Congenital Heart Disease”
- Best Resident/Postdoc Presentation: Niels Brinkman, visiting researcher/scholar, “Artificial Neural Networks Outperform Linear Regression in Predicting Patient-Reported Outcomes Following Upper Extremity Fractures”
- Best Student Presentation: Joshua Cummings, third-year student, “Performance of a Clinical Decision Tool in Patient Selection for Same-Day Discharge after Total Hip and Knee Arthroplasty”
READ 2022 SYMPOSIUM ABSTRACTS »
4th Annual Research Symposium: April 23, 2021
Visiting professor: Zara Cooper, M.D., M.S., associate professor, Harvard Medical School; Kessler Director for the Center for Surgery and Public Health, Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
Awards:
- Health Equity Award: Melissa Miller, M.D., emergency medicine, third-year resident, “Are There Gender or Racial Disparities in EMS-Administered Sedation Among Patients in Police Custody?”
- Value Award: Catherine Dawson, third-year student, “Evaluating Variation in Preoperative Care for Children Undergoing Atrial or Ventricular Septal Defect Repair”
- Best Poster: Simin Roward, M.D., general surgery, third-year resident, “Does BiPAP Affect Intubation Rates in Trauma Patients With Acute Respiratory Failure?”
- Best Resident/Postdoc Presentation: ” Mary Bokenkamp, M.D., general surgery, third-year resident, “Agitation in the Trauma Bay as an Early Indicator of Severe Injury and Hemorrhagic Shock”
- Best Student Presentation: Eugenia Lin, orthopaedic value-based health care fellow, “Patient-Perceived Involvement in Shared Decision-Making Does Not Align With Provider-Rated Involvement”
READ 2021 SYMPOSIUM ABSTRACTS »
3rd Annual Research Symposium: April 24, 2020
Visiting professor: Thomas Varghese Jr., M.D., M.S.; associate professor, University of Utah School of Medicine; Chief Value Officer, Huntsman Cancer Institute
Due to the change to a virtual format, there were no awards for this symposium.
READ 2020 SYMPOSIUM ABSTRACTS »
2nd Annual Research Symposium: March 29, 2019
Visiting professor: Carla Pugh, M.D., Ph.D.; professor of surgery, Stanford University
Awards:
- 1st place: Anish Patel, third-year student, “Opiate Prescriptions Are Highest Among Urologic Reconstructive Surgery: A Claims Dataset Analysis”
- 2nd place: David Archer, Jr., M.D., general surgery, preliminary resident, “Risk Factors for Failure of Non-Operative Management After Splenic Angioembolization: Results of a Multicenter Study of Level 1 Trauma Centers”
- 3rd place: Sabino Lara, M.D., general surgery, second-year resident, “Desmopressin Is a Transfusion Sparing Option To Reverse Platelet Dysfunction in Patients With Severe Traumatic Brain Injury”
READ 2019 SYMPOSIUM ABSTRACTS »
1st Annual Research Symposium: March 30, 2018
Visiting professor: John Holcomb, M.D., professor of surgery, UT Health Science Center at Houston
Awards:
- 1st place: Christina Thorngren, M.D., MPH, emergency medicine, third-year resident, “Innovative Approaches to Age Adjustment of D-Dimer Values for Pulmonary Embolus Across a Hospital Network”
- 2nd place: Elisa Furay, M.D., general surgery, third-year resident, “Goal Directed Platelet Transfusions Correct Platelet Dysfunction and Improve Mortality in Patients With Severe Traumatic Brain Injury”
- 3rd place: Brandon Oyler, D.O., emergency medicine, third-year resident, “Outcomes From Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest After Scripting the Initiation of Mechanical CPR”