Spotlight on the SUS Mid Career Award
2022-2023
Susan Pitt, MD, MPHS, FACS
University of Michigan
Project: Reducing Overtreatment of Low-Risk Thyroid Cancer with a Patient-Directed Intervention: A Pilot-Feasibility Study
Dr. Susan Pitt, MD, MPHS is an Associate Professor of Surgery and Director of Endocrine Surgery Health Services Research at the University of Michigan. Dr. Pitt also serves as the Director of Engagement at the Center for Healthcare Outcomes and Policy. In this role, she leads didactic research and career development related educations programming the Center.
She founded the CHOiCE Collaborative (Comparing Health Outcomes in Cancer Experience to improve the outcomes and experience of patients with low-risk thyroid cancer through comparative effectiveness research and better understanding patient-surgeon treatment decisions. Dr. Pitt earned her medical degree from the Medical College of Wisconsin and completed general surgery residency at Washington University in St. Louis where she also earned a Masters in Population Health Science focused on shared decision-making and health literacy. During a 2-year research fellowship at the University of Wisconsin, she was awarded an NIH Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (T32) an American College of Surgeons Resident Research Scholarship. Dr. Pitt completed a clinical research fellowship in Endocrine Surgery at Brigham & Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA.
Dr. Pitt joined the endocrine surgery faculty at the University of Michigan in 2021 after being faculty at the University of Wisconsin for six years. Clinically, she specializes in surgically treating diseases of the thyroid, parathyroid, and adrenal glands. Her research program funded by the National Cancer Institute focuses on reducing overtreatment of low-risk thyroid cancer through behavioral interventions as well as implementation of less-invasive management strategies like active surveillance. Dr. Pitt’s team also investigates the effect of emotion (fear, anxiety, worry) and uncertainty on overutilization in healthcare. She is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons and a member of multiple professional societies including the Association of Academic Surgeons, American Thyroid Association, American Association of Endocrine Surgeons, and the Surgical Outcomes Club.
Spotlight on the SUS George P. Yang, MD, PhD Underrepresented in Medicine Early Stage Investigator Award
Sponsored by an unrestricted educational grant from the SUS and the SUS Foundation
2024-2025
Alejandro Garcia, MD
Project: Improving Cerebral Reperfusion Injury in Pediatric Cardiac Arrest Using a Porcine Model of Extracorporeal Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (ECPR)
Alejandro Garcia, M.D., is an associate professor in the Johns Hopkins Department of Surgery, Vice-Chair of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Co-director of the Pediatric Surgical Colorectal Program, Assistant Program Director of Halsted General Surgery, and Surgical Director of the Pediatric ECMO Program. Dr. Garcia’s areas of clinical expertise include inflammatory bowel disease and robotic surgery.
Dr. Garcia received his undergraduate degree from Cornell University and earned his medical degree from Weill Cornell Medical College. He completed residencies at Columbia University Medical Center and performed his fellowship at Johns Hopkins Hospital. He also completed an ECMO fellowship and pediatric cancer research at the Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital of New York- Presbyterian.
Dr. Garcia is a member of several professional societies, including the American College of Surgeons, the American Pediatric Surgical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Society of University Surgeons, the Latino Surgical Society, and the Extracorporeal Life Support Organization.
Dr. Garcia’s research interests include pediatric health care disparities and mitigating brain injury on ECMO following cardiac arrest.
Spotlight on the SUS Junior Faculty Research Scholar Award
Sponsored by an educational grant from the SUS Foundation
2023-2024
Michael G. White, MD, MSc
Assistant Professor, Department of Colon & Rectal Surgery, Division of Surgery, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX
Project: Subtractive strategies to modulate the tumoral microbiome and optimize response to therapy in neoadjuvantly treated rectal cancer
Spotlight on the SUS Resident Scholar Award
Sponsored by an educational grant from the SUS Foundation
2023-2024
Brian D. Griffith, MD
Mentor: Timothy Frankel, MD
Project Title: The Role of the Aryl Hydrocarbon Receptor in Shaping the Tumor Immune Microenvironment in Pancreatic Cancer
Brian D. Griffith is a 5th year general surgery resident at the University of Michigan with interests in surgical oncology and tumor immunology. He graduated from the University of Pittsburgh with a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry and obtained his medical degree from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. He is mentored by Dr. Timothy Frankel, with co-mentorship provided by Dr. Clifford Cho. With the support of this Society of University Surgeons award, Dr. Griffith and his mentors will investigate how aryl hydrocarbon receptor ligands, which include toxins commonly found in cigarette smoke, impact pancreatic cancer progression and the tumor immune microenvironment. Their work will explore mechanisms by which targeting this receptor may offer a treatment option in pancreatic cancer.
Spotlight on the SUS Resident Scholar Award
Sponsored by an educational grant from KARL STORZ
2023-2024
Priyanka Chugh, MD, MS
SUS Mentor: Tom Jaksic, MD
Project Title: Medication and Nutrition Adherence in Adolescents and Young Adults with Intestinal Failure
Priyanka Chugh received her BA in Psychology with minors in Chemistry, Public Health and Policy, and Child/Adolescent Mental Health Studies from New York University. She received her MS in Biotechnology from Johns Hopkins University and her medical degree from Cooper Medical School of Rowan University. She has completed three years of general surgery residency at Boston Medical Center where she serves as the senior administrative research resident under the guidance of Dr. Teviah Sachs, Dr. Kelly Kenzik and Dr. Jennifer Tseng.
She is in her second year of research fellowship at Boston Children’s Hospital in the Center for Advanced Intestinal Rehabilitation (CAIR) with her research mentors Dr. Tom Jaksic and Dr. Biren Modi. With the support of this award, Dr. Chugh, her mentors, and the interdisciplinary team at Boston Children’s Hospital are developing a cross-sectional mixed methods study to evaluate medication and nutrition adherence in adolescents and young adults with intestinal failure. The study will use both surveys and qualitative interviews and is the first study of its kind to evaluate this important aspect of the care of these patients with complex healthcare needs.
Spotlight on the SUS Global Surgery Scholar Award
2024
Kristin L. Long, MD, MPH, FACS, FCS(ECSA)
Associate Professor of Surgery
Associate Director, Endocrine Surgery Fellowship
Director, Doris Duke Clinical Research Continuum
Department of Surgery, Section of Endocrine Surgery
University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health
Dr. Kristin Long is an Associate Professor of Surgery at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health in the Division of Endocrine Surgery. She completed her general surgery training at the University of Kentucky and her endocrine surgery fellowship at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas, prior to joining the faculty at UW. Once at UW, she also earned a Master’s in Public Health from UW SMPH. Her clinical practice focuses primarily on thyroid and parathyroid surgery, and she is the Associate Program Director for UW’s Endocrine Surgery fellowship. Her academic focus is global surgery, and she has projects in Kenya, Ethiopia, and Palestine. Additionally, she is a fellow of the College of Surgeons of Eastern, Central and Southern Africa and serves on the executive committee of the Association of Academic Global Surgery. She was awarded the 2019 AAS Visiting Professorship to the West African College of Surgeons, and has given invited talks on 6 continents. When not operating or traveling, she can be found with her dog Gizmo or at a nearby concert! Her SUS Global Surgery Scholar proposal focuses on the challenges of adapting to a hybrid virtual world in education and capacity-building for global surgery.
2023
Thomas G. Weiser, MD, MPH, FACS, FCS(ECSA), FRCSEd(ad hom)
Clinical Professor, Department of Surgery, Stanford University
Section of Trauma and Critical Care, Stanford Medicine
Thomas Weiser, MD, MPH, is a Clinical Professor in the Department of Surgery at Stanford University. He practices general, emergency, and trauma surgery and surgical intensive care. His research focuses on quality and safety of surgical care, and strategies for improving the safety and reliability of surgical delivery in resource-poor settings. He was part of the World Health Organization’s Safe Surgery Saves Lives program where he helped quantify the global volume of surgery and create, implement, evaluate, and promote the WHO Surgical Safety Checklist. He contributed to the Disease Control Priorities Project to identify a suite of emergency and essential operations that are very cost-effective and highlight surgery’s importance in a strong, well-functioning health system. He was also involved in the Lancet Commission on Global Surgery and helped organize and craft its key messages. He was previously the Consulting Medical Officer for Lifebox, a charity dedicated to improving surgical safety worldwide, where he helped develop the Clean Cut program to improve compliance with perioperative infection practices embedded in the Surgical Safety Checklist.
He is currently the Program Director for Wellcome Leap where he leads the SAVE program (Surgery: Assess/Validate/Expand). SAVE aims to accelerate laparoscopic surgical skills acquisition and reduce mortality following surgery through enhanced monitoring and early prediction of deterioration.