Research Opportunities

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Our Research Mission

Integral to the mission of the Department of Surgery is to provide outstanding scientific training to medical students and surgical residents.  We are committed to support and increase the scope of research and scholarship by maintaining an environment of inquiry. Our residents and medical students join surgery faculty in pursuing a scholarly project in the area of basic science research, clinical research, education research and/or quality improvement studies and create or improve their academic portfolio during surgery residency. Further, we are committed to providing the foundation for an academic career through extensive research experiences including dedicated research time for those who wish to enter academic surgery. Annually, 1-2 residents in our program take research year between the PGY-2 and PGY-3 years. This yearlong research experience can be expanded to accommodate more if desired, and is available on an elective basis for military residents. These research experiences are typically with one of the surgery faculty but can be in other laboratories and can accommodate clinical research activities if appropriate.

Primary Research Areas

  1. Surgical Education and DEI Research
  2. Health Services and Outcomes Research
  3. Global Health/Surgery Research
  4. Quality Improvement/Process Improvement

Meet Our Research Residents

View each resident to see their areas of research and more information.

Our Work

  • Casey Walk, Rodrigo Gerardo, Rebecca Tuttle, Priti Parikh. Thriving in Virtual Era: A Structured Approach in Improving Program Visibility and Virtual Interview Process. J Surg Educ. 2022;79(6):1326-1333.doi:10.1016/j.jsurg.2022.05.012
    https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35780014/
  • Priti Parikh, Savannah Kipfer, Timothy Crawford, Amalia Cochran, Garietta Falls. Unmasking Bias and Perception of Surgeons in the Operating Room: A Simulation Based Study. American Journal of Surgery. 2022; 223(1):58-63. doi:10.1016/j.amjsurg.2021.07.015
    https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34373086/
  • Catherine Entriken, Zachary Weed, Priti Parikh, and A. Peter Ekeh. Complications Following Splenic Embolization for Trauma: Have Things Changed Over Time? Journal of Surgical Research. 2022; 277:44-49
    https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35460920/
  • Travis Perry, William Pinette, Jason Miner, Heather Lesch, Brittany Denny, Priti Parikh. Outcomes in Ventilated Burn Patients with Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome: An Evaluation of Early High-PEEP Strategy Using Berlin Criteria. Journal of Burn Care & Research. 2022; 43(2):287-292, https://doi.org/10.1093/jbcr/irab169
  • Hu A, Reiter AJ, Gerardo R, Skertich NJ, Lewit R, Ghani M, Witte A, Kang HS, Richards H, Perry B, Tian Y, Mehl SC, Gonzalez A, Novotny NM, Haynes J, Aranda A, Zamora IJ, Rhee D, Fialkowski E, Slater BJ, Van Arendonk K, Gosain A, Lopez ME, Raval MV. Association between COVID-19 related elective surgery cancellations and pediatric inguinal hernia complications: A nationwide multicenter cohort study. Surgery. 2022 Sep;172(3):989-996. doi: 10.1016/j.surg.2022.05.011. Epub 2022 May 20. PMID: 35738913; PMCID: PMC9374501.  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9374501/
  • Gerardo R, Lele P, Sundaram K, Ponsky T. Surgical telementoring: Feasibility, applicability, and how to. J Surg Oncol. 2021 Aug;124(2):241-245. doi: 10.1002/jso.26511. PMID: 34245573. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34245573/
  • Gerardo RG, Ponsky TA. Diagnostic Laparoscopy for Abdominal Trauma in Infants and Children: How We Do It. J Laparoendosc Adv Surg Tech A. 2021 Oct;31(10):1224-1226. doi: 10.1089/lap.2021.0455. Epub 2021 Sep 14. PMID: 34520262.
    https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34520262/
  • Aubert O, Wagner R, Gerardo R, Tamaro G, Zani A, Ponsky T, Lacher M. Virtual Education in Pediatric Surgery during the COVID-19 Era: Facing and Overcoming Current Challenges. Eur J Pediatr Surg. 2021 Aug;31(4):319-325. doi: 10.1055/s-0041-1731297. Epub 2021 Jun 27. PMID: 34176106. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34176106/