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The Next Generation of Surgeon Investigators: Surgical Trainees Answer Tough Questions Facing Surgeons and Patients

STARS 2018 presenters, judges, and participants.

How do we define “competence” in surgical consultation? What factors lead to overuse of invasive screening tests in low-risk patients with bladder cancer? These were some of the questions asked by the fifteen young surgical investigators from the Geisel School of Medicine and Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC) at the sixth annual STARS (Surgical Trainees Advancing Research Symposium) event April 12-13 at DHMC. Symposium co-directors, Drs. Philip Goodney and Kari Rosenkranz presided over the two-day event sponsored by the Department of Surgery at DHMC. The symposium promotes interest in surgical health services research among young and aspiring surgeons through a spirited but supportive competition.

Invited guest, Adil Haider, MD, MPH, Kessler Director at the Center for Surgery and Public Health, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health delivered the keynote, “Enhancing Our Cultural Dexterity: The Next Step in Reducing Disparities and Providing Patient-Centered Surgical Care.” In his talk, Dr. Haider called attention to unconscious bias in surgical care and described a new training for surgeons on how to communicate with patients of different cultures, built on the tenants of cross cultural communication, curiosity, respect and empathy.

DHMC’s surgeon judges Drs. Christina Angeles, Philip Goodney, Joga Ivatury, Kari Rosenkranz, and Sandra Wong, and visiting faculty, Dr. Adil Haider, awarded prizes to the top presentations given by surgical trainees.

  • First Prize: Jesse Columbo, MD, “Beware the Negative Stress Test: Postoperative Cardiac Events May Be More Prevalent Than in Patients Without a Preoperative Workup”
  • Second Prize: Peter Kahng '19, Geisel School of Medicine, “Testing the Efficacy of Intraoperative Imaging for Trans-Oral Surgery”
  • Third Prize: David Han, Geisel School of Medicine, “Overuse of cystoscopic surveillance among patients with low-risk non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer – A national study of patient, provider, and facility factors”
  • QuickShot Prize: Abishek Swarup, MD, “The Effect of Nonoperative Management of Chronic Anal Fissure and Hemorrhoid Disease on Bowel Function Patient-Reported Outcomes”

“The STARS event was an exciting opportunity as a medical student to present my research with the ENT department and Thayer School of Engineering to the Dartmouth-Hitchcock medical community! The event highlights the high-quality research being done by my classmates and the medical community at Dartmouth, and I’m proud to have been able to take part in it this year,” said Peter Kahng ’19.

For more information and photos, please contact kayla.o.moore@dartmouth.edu

Full Program available at http://www.dartmouthcesc.org/meetings--events.html