Department of Surgery Hosts 15th Annual Louis R.M. DelGuercio Distinguished Visiting Professorship and Research Day
Eighty-five abstract submissions—an 85% increase from last year—marked the 15th Annual Louis R.M. DelGuercio Distinguished Visiting Professorship and Research Day hosted by the Department of Surgery, on December 19.
The day featured a moderated poster session and podium presentations by medical students, residents and faculty members from the Department of Surgery at the College and hospital affiliates and a distinguished visiting professor lecture by Adil Haider, M.D., M.P.H., second from right, associate chair for research and Kessler Director, Center for Surgery and Public Health, a joint initiative of Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Dr. Haider, an active trauma, and acute care surgeon and prolific researcher, is regarded as one of the foremost experts on healthcare inequities in the United States, with projects focused on describing and mitigating unequal outcomes based on gender, race, sexual orientation, ethnicity, age and socioeconomic status. Dr. Haider is credited with uncovering racial disparities after traumatic injury and establishing the field of trauma disparities research. His other research focuses on long-term clinical and functional outcomes after trauma and emergency general surgery, optimal treatment of trauma/critically ill patients in resource-poor settings and advanced analytic techniques for surgical health services research.
Dr. Haider received his medical degree from The Aga Khan University in Pakistan and then moved to the U.S. to pursue his postgraduate studies. He trained in public health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and went on to complete his surgical residency at New York Medical College in 2005, later joining the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, where he completed his fellowships in surgical critical care and trauma and acute care surgery. He will be returning to Aga Khan in January to serve as the dean of its medical school.
Dr. Haider shared his groundbreaking research on trauma outcome disparities in his presentation, “From Beeper #1107 to Impacting Surgery at the National Stage: Did Dr. Savino’s Prediction Come True,” light heartedly alluding to his time as a surgical resident when his beeper number was 1107 and John A. Savino, M.D., second from left, professor of surgery and former chairman of the Department of Surgery, saw great potential in Dr. Haider and wrote he would have a great impact on surgery at the national level in a recommendation letter.
Dr. Haider concluded his presentation with his tenet, “Equality is the cornerstone of medicine.” He also presented the Department of Surgery’s Grand Rounds that morning, “Discharged but NOT Forgotten: The Need to Collect Long-Term Functional Outcomes after Trauma.”
DelGuercio Day was established in 2002 to honor the late Dr. Del Guercio's leadership and pioneering research during his 24-year tenure as chairman of the Department of Surgery, and to stimulate and promote surgical research throughout the College. This year’s award winners were:
Best Posters:
James, Choi, M.D. (PGY2)
Utilizing MESS and Mechanism of Injury to Predict Limb Salvage vs. Amputation in Traumatic Lower Extremity Injuries
Ansab, Haider, M.D. (PGY3)
National Trends in Pulmonary Embolism Management And Outcomes: Shifting Paradigms
Faisal Jehan, M.D. (PGY1)
Pre-Existing Major Psychiatric Illness in Patients With Traumatic Brain Injury Increases the Risk of Post-TBI Seizures
Best Clinical Research Papers:
Anubhav G. Amin, M.D. (PGY6)
Preoperative Meningioma Embolization is Safe But Costs More Than Non-Embolization Resections: A Multi-Center Retrospective Matched Case-Control Study
Mahir Gachabayov, M.D. (Research Fellow)
Combined: Early-Onset Vs. Late-Onset Inguinal Hernia Mesh Infections: A Retrospective Cohort Study
and
Outcomes Of 1,327 Patients Operated on Through Twelve Multispecialty Surgical Volunteerism Missions: A Retrospective Cohort Study
Faisal Jehan, M.D. (PGY1)
Metabolic Syndrome Exponentially Increases the Risk of Adverse Outcomes After Surgery for Diverticulitis
Best Science Research:
Matthew McIntyre (School of Medicine Class of 2020)
Lactated Ringers Attenuates Gut Microbiome and Intestinal Changes after 40% Total Body Surface Area Burn Injury in Swine
Adiel Munk (School of Medicine Class of 2020)
CD5+ Dendritic Cells Are a Potent Immunostimulatory Mediator in GVHD
John V. Wainwright, M.D. (PGY5)
Transplantation of Neural Precursors Derived From Spinal Progenitor Cells Improves Functional Recovery From Spinal Cord Injury By Reduced Inflammation Via Inhibition of the Nf-Kb Pathway in a Rat Model of Spinal Cord Injury
Photo above from left: Thomas Diflo, M.D., professor of surgery; John A. Savino, M.D., professor of surgery and former chairman of the Department of Surgery; Adil Haider, M.D., M.P.H., associate chair for research and Kessler Director, Center for Surgery and Public Health, a joint initiative of Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health; and Rifat Latifi, M.D., professor and chair of the Department of Surgery.
