Lauren Gallagher, MD, a fourth-year resident in the University of Colorado Department of Surgery, was recognized for her research by the American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma in March, winning first place in the organization’s annual Resident and Fellow Trauma Paper Competition during its annual meeting in Chicago.
Research Cardiothoracic Surgery Transplant Surgery Liver Transplant Heart Transplant
As waiting lists continue to grow for patients awaiting organ transplants including heart, liver, lung, and kidney, surgeons are looking for ways to increase the number of organs they can take from deceased donors to use in living recipients.
Research Education Trauma GITES
Two residents from the University of Colorado Department of Surgery took home top honors in the resident paper competition at the annual meeting of the Western Trauma Association, which took place February 25 through March 1 in Snowmass, Colorado.
Research Students Stomach Cancer
Cancer researchers know that the Epstein-Barr virus causes certain types of stomach cancer, but what is less understood is if the unique molecular makeup of EBV-related stomach cancers makes them more responsive to certain cancer medicines.
Can a lumpectomy patient’s chances of needing to return for a second surgery be reduced if the results of the operation are analyzed in real time, while the patient is still under anesthesia?
The University of Colorado Department of Surgery continues to move up on the Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research Rankings of National Institutes of Health Funding, an annual ranking of the NIH funding allotted to researchers at medical schools and their departments.
Research Patient Care Lung Cancer Cardiothoracic Surgery
Are surgeons giving patients unrealistic expectations about recovery after robotic lung surgery? That’s what CU Department of Surgery faculty member Robert Meguid, MD, MPH, and surgery resident Adam Dyas, MD, set out to discover after realizing the guidance they were offering patients might be based on outdated or anecdotal information.
Research Clinical Trials Cardiothoracic Surgery
February is American Heart Month — the perfect time to remind women that their risk of cardiovascular disease is just as high as that of men.
The blood holds mysteries to healing that we’re only beginning to understand.
Franklin Wright, MD, associate professor of GI, trauma, and endocrine surgery in the University of Colorado Department of Surgery, is advancing what is known about blood – specifically, the balance between too much bleeding and too much clotting.
The research portfolio at the University of Colorado Department of Surgery has expanded with the recent arrival of Jessica C. Cardenas, PhD, a researcher who is studying mechanisms of and therapeutics to prevent thrombotic and inflammatory complications — such as blood clots — in patients with traumatic injuries and acute critical illness.
Research Press Releases Health equity GITES Leadership
The University of Colorado Department of Surgery is putting a greater focus on health equity with the appointment of Catherine Velopulos, MD, to the new role of associate vice chair of health equity and health services research.
Researchers from around the country gathered on the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus earlier this month to share their latest findings on the relationship among alcohol use, immunity, and inflammation.
Research COVID-19 Vascular Surgery
The COVID-19 pandemic afforded medical researchers a rare opportunity. Since many hospitals delayed scheduled operations at the height of the health crisis, there was an unprecedented opportunity to study the effects of delayed surgeries to make recommendations for future pandemics, natural disasters, or other widespread health emergencies.
Research Diversity Urology Equity Diversity and Inclusion
Learning through a prenatal ultrasound that your baby may or may not need surgery can be scary. Learning the surgeon may have directed the decision based on race and socioeconomic status? Not ideal.
Researchers at the University of Colorado Department of Surgery are taking a deep dive into the decision-making process associated with a condition called ureteropelvic junction (UPJ) obstruction after learning the decision to have surgery was largely based on surgeon perceptions.
As the child of a mother who immigrated to the U.S. from Peru, Jonathan Hills-Dunlap, MD, MPH, was aware at an early age of the disparities that exist within the health care system.
Research Plastic Surgery Liver Transplant
Is there a biomarker that can predict which patients will develop dangerous infectious complications after receiving a liver transplant? Nalu Navarro-Alvarez, MD, assistant professor of plastic and reconstructive surgery in the University of Colorado Department of Surgery, says yes.
The Society for Basic Urologic Research (SBUR) has named Alison Xie, PhD, an assistant professor in the Division of Urology in the University of Colorado Department of Surgery, one of its Young Investigators for 2023. The SBUR Young Investigator Awards are given to SBUR members who are under the age of 45, within five years of their first faculty position, and have made significant contributions to urologic research. Xie accepted her award at the organization’s annual meeting in October.
JoLynn Shinsako, PA-C, MS, physician assistant in transplant surgery at the University of Colorado Department of Surgery, helped found and currently leads a nocturnal advanced practice provider surgical subspecialty service aimed at optimizing patient care overnight in various surgical subspecialties.
Research Heart Transplant Surgery
New research by Syed Shahyan Bakhtiyar, MD, a surgical resident in the University of Colorado Department of Surgery, may help surgeons make more informed decisions about heart transplant surgery for their patients.
Offering new options for men and women with incontinence issues, the Functional & Reconstructive Urology (FRU) Section in the University of Colorado Department of Surgery is studying two new devices that offer alternatives to polypropylene mesh, pump-operated systems, and other surgical therapies for incontinence that have been in use for the past 30 years.
Research Education Equity Diversity and Inclusion
Though many medical residency programs have begun using holistic review to evaluate candidates — a process that looks at qualities such as leadership, research aptitude, and volunteerism to get a more well-rounded view of an applicant than grades and test scores can provide — some administrators are still wary that a holistic process may not result in a qualified candidate pool.
For all the differences between males and females, here’s one Alison Xie, PhD, wasn’t expecting.
Research Press Releases Community
Mitchell Cohen, MD, has been named associate vice chair of basic and translational research in the University of Colorado Department of Surgery.
Though it affects around one in every 150 male births, chances are good you have never heard of hypospadias — a condition in which the penis, rather than having a hole at the tip through which urine passes, has a hole on the underside. It’s a condition that can cause issues with urination, as well as sexual function, if it isn’t corrected early.
Research Public Health Trauma Pediatric surgery
The Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) is an important tool that ranks each U.S. Census tract on 16 social factors – including poverty, crowded housing, and lack of vehicle access – to help identify communities and populations at greater risk for poor health outcomes during emergencies.
From analyzing the effects of social vulnerability and health disparities on postoperative outcomes to mitigating the effects of trauma to evaluating new treatment modalities for pancreatic cancer, the research presented at the annual University of Colorado Department of Surgery Research Symposium on May 22 posed a plethora of new possibilities for patient care.
Research Public Health Obesity Cardiothoracic Surgery
In the United States, almost 74% of adults age 20 and older have overweight or obesity, and of that number almost 42% have obesity.
Despite its occasional reputation as a place to pick fights with strangers, Twitter can often be a valuable tool – for awareness, for education, for connecting with peers around the world.
Research Plastic Surgery Pediatrics ColoradoSPH at CU Anschutz
A $1.9 million grant from the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) will help researchers at the University of Colorado Department of Surgery and Colorado School of Public Health develop better treatment methods for children diagnosed with craniosynostosis, a present-at-birth condition in which a baby’s skull plates fuse together too early, before the brain is fully formed.
Research Cardiothoracic Surgery
The continuing move to multidisciplinary surgical care has meant a growing number of approaches to treating surgical issues. In cardiac surgery, the conversations that happen between surgeons, cardiac imagers, and interventional cardiologists have become integral to providing the best care that puts patients at the lowest risk.
The relationship between alcohol use and burn injuries is a negative one in multiple ways. Not only are about 50% of adults who sustain burn injuries intoxicated at the time of injury, suggesting that alcohol use may have contributed to the incident, but alcohol use among burn-injured patients is associated with more severe complications, delayed recovery, and increased morbidity and mortality.
Research Press Releases Faculty
Elizabeth J. Kovacs, PhD, professor of GI, trauma, and endocrine surgery, has been named vice chair of research in the CU Department of Surgery.
Research Education Diversity Clinical
Each year, since 1987, the President of the United States has issued a proclamation designating the month of March as Women’s History Month. It is significant that the leadership of our country recognizes the importance of reaffirming the historical accomplishments of women with this annual proclamation.
Generations of women have endured hardships, exclusion, and discrimination and despite these challenges have furthered equity and equality in our communities. As a nation, we have made great strides in medicine, technology, social justice, and much more through their unwillingness to surrender their dreams and goals.
We would like to take this time to highlight a few of the great women and their work in the CU Department of Surgery.
Carotid artery blowout, while rare, is a life-threatening surgical emergency with a mortality rate approaching 60%.
The University of Colorado Department of Surgery had an excellent year in 2022. We posted more than 75 great stories that highlighted the research, patient care, and education done this year by faculty, students, researchers, and staff in the department.
In the course of her research, Jamie Burke, a student in the University of Colorado School of Medicine, learned that at least 50% of patients surveyed at a safety net breast surgical oncology clinic were uncomfortable interpreting their own medical results.
Research Innovation Community Pediatrics
An innovative device designed to secure gastrostomy buttons recently won the Shark Tank challenge at the 2022 North American Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition (NASPGHAN) annual meeting.
Surgical patients under the care of clinicians at the University of Colorado Department of Surgery are at lower risk of complications brought on by an aspiration event, thanks to a new patient safety protocol led by the Office of Quality & Clinical Effectiveness of the Department of Surgery, as reported by Viviane Leite Abud, MD, a quality and executive leadership resident in the department.
Research Community Plastic Surgery
Lymphedema is a chronic disease that causes lymphatic fluid to build up in the body, especially in the legs, arms, genitals, face, neck, and chest wall. It can be painful, debilitating, and have significant negative impacts on a person’s quality of life.
Research Pediatric Cancer Blood
Blood transfusion is a vital and lifesaving intervention in a broad range of scenarios, from trauma response to cancer treatment. However, it is not entirely without risk.
Why are older people at higher risk for lung injury, especially after trauma? The answer may lie in the macrophages, the immune cells that live in the air spaces of the lungs.
A new research study by Danielle Abbitt, MD, a resident in the University of Colorado Department of Surgery, shows that a protocol that started as a necessity during the COVID-19 pandemic has evolved into a time-saving step for patients recovering from surgery.
Pediatric patients did not experience a significant difference in pain levels following ureteral stent removal between those who took a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medicine before the procedure and those who didn’t, new research reports.
Research Transplant Surgery Liver Transplant
Research recently published in JAMA Surgery demonstrates that living-donor liver transplant (LDLT) recipients gain an additional 13 to 17 life-years following their surgery compared with patients who remain on the donor waitlist.
Research Transplant Surgery Liver Transplant
Liver transplant surgery is a vital and life-saving procedure, but it also is associated with a high rate of postoperative complications. As many as one in four liver transplant patients will return to the operating room (R-OR) within 48 hours of their initial surgery.
Research Plastic Surgery Veteran and Military Health
Soldiers and others who receive severe injuries to the hands and face often can benefit from a type of transplant known as vascularized composite allograft (VCA) — the transplantation of multiple tissues, including muscle, bone, nerve, skin, and blood vessels, as a functional unit (such as a hand or face) from a deceased donor to a recipient with a severe injury.
Solid organ transplants — heart, lung, liver, and kidney — are resource-intensive operations that require patients to take immunosuppressive drugs after the procedure to keep the body from rejecting the new organ.
Research Patient Care Plastic Surgery Pediatrics
Kristen Lowe, DDS, MS, an assistant professor of plastic and reconstructive surgery in the University of Colorado School of Medicine, has received a grant from Align Technologies, the company that makes the Invisalign tooth-straightening system. The grant will support Lowe in developing more efficient ways to treat infants with cleft lip and palate.
For John Iguidbashian and Alejandro Suarez-Pierre, general surgery residents in the Department of Surgery at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, the research started as a way to give patients who were eligible for lung transplants more accurate information about their life expectancy after the surgery.
Research Patient Care Community
Patients who come from socially vulnerable backgrounds are at greater risk for complications following colon surgery, recently published research has found.
Through analyzing post-operative outcome data for more than 5.5 million patients, Helen Madsen, MD, found that patients who are overweight or obese are at increased risk for post-operative infection, blood clots, and renal complications.
Research Patient Care Education Community
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, intensive care unit (ICU) beds were in limited supply, and the pandemic only exacerbated this growing concern. Since the pandemic began, ICU resources have been in such demand that clinicians across the United States and world have struggled to meet the need.
Research Education Community Cardiothoracic Surgery
It’s not unusual for students to enter medical school with ideas about paths they’d like to pursue in medicine. Those ideas can evolve over time as they delve into course work and clinical rotations, but the initial interests that guided them to medicine in the first place can be significant.
The dangers of using electronic cigarettes are well known when it comes to the potential for addiction and lung injury, but new research published in the Journal of Surgical Research finds another cause for concern when it comes to e-cigarettes: the potential for the vaping devices to explode during use.
Why are older adults more likely to get seriously ill or even die from pneumonia? It turns out the cause may have as much to do with the gut as it does with the lungs.
Research Education Community Vascular Surgery
The skills that Ryan Gupta, MD, learned during his master of business administration (MBA) studies aren’t necessarily the skills usually associated with vascular surgery: how to understand financial statements, how to conduct market research, how to make difficult decisions about resource allocation.
Research Education Community Students
A tool designed to help surgical trainees practice skills such as knot tying, suturing, vascular and bowel anastomoses, and other techniques has helped eliminate barriers to simulation resources.
Research Patient Care Plastic Surgery
From Silly Putty to the microwave oven, there is a long history of consumer products “accidentally” discovered during the scientific discovery process.
Research Patient Care Community Surgical Oncology
While both patients and clinicians prioritize information transparency, a 21st Century Cures Act requirement for the immediate release of test and lab results is proving more controversial, according to recently published survey results of clinicians and patients.
Emma Lamping, a second-year student at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, has received a $5,000 “Emerging Scientist Award” from the Institute of Cannabis Research in Pueblo, Colorado, for her work on a research study comparing postoperative pain medication requirements and surgical outcomes after major abdominal surgery for the treatment of cancer between daily cannabis users and nonusers of cannabis.
Research Patient Care Education Community Faculty
For the 50 years of his career, Ernest Moore, MD, a distinguished professor of surgery, has been eager to go to work – not just caring for patients or the challenges of the operating room, but for the myriad paths of research he has pursued since he was an undergraduate.
Research Education Community Trauma GITES
Two general surgery residents at the University of Colorado School of Medicine — Margot DeBot, MD, and TJ Schaid, MD — placed first and second, respectively, in the District 8 regional competition for the 2022 American College of Surgeons’ Committee on Trauma Paper Competition in early December. DeBot and Schaid are both T32 NIH research fellows in the CU Trauma Lab.
Research Patient Care Education Community
The University of Colorado Department of Surgery's commitment to improve every life was spotlighted numerous times by faculty, staff, trainees, and students throughout 2021.
Research Patient Care Community
There’s a significant body of research on opioids – how they’re metabolized, how they react with other drugs, the physiology of addiction, and how they’re prescribed, among the many areas of focus.
Research Patient Care Press Releases
The U.S. Department of Defense is funding a study by Arek Wiktor, MD, associate professor of GI, trauma, and endocrine surgery and interim medical director of the UCHealth Burn and Frostbite Center – Anschutz Medical Campus, to aid in treatment of military and civilian burn patients.
Research Patient Care Community COVID-19 Quality and Clinical Effectiveness
Ideas and innovation don’t always co-exist with convenience. On the CU Anschutz Medical Campus, the road to a novel mask design to address the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic took some unexpected twists and turns.
Of all the lessons she learned during the eight-week Medical Student Summer Research Program (MSRP), Rose Castle, a rising second year at the University of Colorado School of Medicine who is interested in pursuing general surgery, drew her main takeaway outside the operating room.
Research Patient Care Vascular Surgery
Clinical pathways are a vital tool in providing patients with high-quality, standardized care, as well as improving the value of health care. But they are only helpful if physicians actually use them.
Opioid prescribing preferences and practices among surgical residents and faculty differ, according to a new study published in the journal Surgery.
Research Patient Care Education Community
The University of Colorado School of Medicine Department of Surgery hosted its Resident and Fellowship Graduation at Denver Botanic Gardens on June 11.
Research Patient Care Community
Patients’ rights advocates scored a major victory in April, when a provision went into effect that allows patients immediate access to all information in their medical records, including physician notes and test results. The change is part of the 21st Century Cures Act, which was passed by Congress in 2016 and continues to be updated.
Research Patient Care Community Burn GITES
Last month, the University of Colorado Burn Center underwent the American Burn Association (ABA) Survey, a verification process that occurs every three years. The Burn Center has achieved continual verification since its first ABA Survey in 1998, and that trend continues this year. The Burn Center received its verification confirmation on May 19, 2021, to continue through April 2024.
The depth and breadth of the research happening across the Department of Surgery at the University of Colorado School of Medicine was on full display in Monday’s eighth annual Research Symposium. Sixteen residents — eight from clinical and health services and eight from basic and translational research — presented papers on topics ranging from salvaging tissue in patients with frostbite to how shock can affect someone with a traumatic brain injury. The event was held virtually due to the pandemic.
Fredric Pieracci, MD, MPH/MSPH, an associate professor in the University of Colorado School of Medicine Department of Surgery, is the senior author on a new paper published in Surgery for Obesity and Related Diseases that details the results of a public health initiative to provide affordable bariatric surgery to uninsured Denver County residents.
For the past nine years, the Surgical Outcomes and Applied Research (SOAR) group at the University of Colorado School of Medicine has been conducting research on health services within the Department of Surgery. A large part of that research has to do with clinical outcomes for surgery patients and how patients fare — in the short term and the long term — after an operation.
Eighteen physicians, residents, and medical students from the University of Colorado School of Medicine presented on their research this week at the Academic Surgical Congress, an annual convention hosted by the Society of University Surgeons.
Research Quality and Clinical Effectiveness
Edward Jones, MD, MS, an associate professor of surgery at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, is a nationally recognized expert on preventing operating room (OR) fires.
Research Patient Care Quality and Clinical Effectiveness
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought new attention to the safety of patients during surgery. But long before the concerns brought on by coronavirus, the CU Department of Surgery was working to make patient safety a priority.
In a normal year, vascular surgeons would never postpone surgeries for patients with aortic or carotid disease or other conditions.
Research Cancer Surgical Oncology
Medical cannabis was legalized in Colorado in 2000, but 20 years later, Camille Stewart, MD, isn’t able to prescribe it to her patients. Nor is she able to dictate the dosage or frequency with which patients take the drug.
Research Patient Care Community Prostate Cancer Urology
Although prostate cancer is treatable when found early, there are common fears that men share concerning prostate cancer.
“I hear from patients all the time stating they do not want to get tested and they do not want to know if they have prostate cancer. Due to the possible side effects associated with treatment,” says Paul Maroni, MD, associate professor in the Department of Surgery, Urology Division, program director of the Urologic Cancer Care Center and University of Colorado (CU) Cancer Center member.
Research Patient Care Community Prostate Cancer Cancer Urology
Growing up, Douglas “Bucky” Dilts was all too familiar with the dangers of cancer. “My mother ran a cancer tumor registry at St Joseph's Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia for over 25 years. She was always telling us about different types of cancer, so cancer was always at the forefront.”
Research Patient Care Community Sarcoma
The CU Sarcoma Clinic is pleased to welcome Breelyn A. Wilky, MD, to our multidisciplinary team. Dr. Wilky joined the Medical Oncology faculty in the cancer clinic on November 1, 2018.
Research Patient Care Community
Dr. Richard Schulick, Chair of the Department of Surgery, has been named Director of the University of Colorado Cancer Center.
Research Patient Care Community
Every year, 14 million people around the world, including 1.7 million Americans, are diagnosed with cancer. One of the major challenges in fighting cancer is to understand and manipulate the response of the body's immune system to cancer cells. Recently, an area that has received growing attention and has shown promise in clinical trials is the use of immune checkpoint inhibitors.
Research Patient Care Community
The health hazards of smoking have been documented for decades, but research on “vaping,” the smoking of electronic cigarettes, is still in its infancy.
Research Patient Care Community
The Society of University Surgeons (SUS) has awarded Dr. Ernest "Gene" Moore its prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award. Each year since 2005, the Society has conferred this award on a single surgeon who has made substantial contributions to surgical science over the course of a full career. Previous winners include Frank G. Moody, Ben Eiseman, and Patricia K. Donohoe.
In the course of his long career as a surgeon, Guillermo 'Bill' Aragón saved many lives, but that wasn’t enough for him. Dr. Aragón wanted to continue making a positive impact on the world after his retirement—and, if possible, even beyond his lifetime. This desire led him to endow the Aragón/Gonzalez-Gíustí Chair in Surgery at the University of Colorado.
Research Patient Care Community
Joe and Jean Barban were so moved by the care they received at the Anschutz Medical Campus that they were inspired to give back so that others may benefit as well. Their gift of an endowed chair allows CU to recognize top faculty’s talents, hard work and achievements. In turn, the top faculty who hold endowed chairs and professorships elevate the entire university community: attracting other passionate teachers and scholars, igniting students’ curiosity and making ground-breaking discoveries that bring us closer to solving some of the most challenging problems we face today.
UCHealth
February 22, 2024
“Wrestling is a difficult sport. It’s both a team and a one-on-one sport that requires endurance, strength, and mental toughness,” said Matthew Lorio, MD, professor of plastic and reconstructive surgery.
CBS4 Denver
February 02, 2024
Kia Washington, MD, professor of plastic and reconstructive surgery, is hoping she can help a Colorado man who was blinded seven years ago.
UCHealth
December 04, 2023
Janet Kukreja, MD, a University of Colorado School of Medicine urologic surgeon, is North America’s most prolific robotic cystectomist.
The Denver Post
November 21, 2023
So many Coloradans responded to a call to donate pieces of their livers that Children’s Hospital Colorado expects every child in need of a transplant this year will get one.
Greg Glasgow
