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.
"The really staggering part of the study was that we determined that the survival benefit is not something that increased by several months or even a year or two. The benefit that the patient can expect to gain is 13 years or more,” says Elizabeth Pomfret, MD, PhD, chief of transplant surgery and the senior author of the study.
“In the first few months of life, we can take a wide cleft and minimize the deformity. We bring the gum segments together, the lip segments together, and we shape the noses in these infants in preparation for their first surgical repair, which is traditionally at three to six months of life. The goal is to set up the patient for the best surgical result possible.”
The pair pioneered a perioperative quality improvement project to look at how — and when — urinary catheters were placed and removed, even considering whether catheters are needed for some operations. As UTIs can be deadly, especially for older patients, it was an important issue to address.
Cenea Kemp, MD, a general surgery resident in the Department of Surgery at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, took home the award for Best Oral Cardiac Presentation at the annual meeting of the Eastern Cardiothoracic Surgical Society in October 2022. Kemp was recognized for her research titled An Analysis of Aortic Remodeling in TEVAR for Aortic Dissection: Balloon Flap Fracture vs. the Traditional Method.
“Blood transfusion is obviously hugely important when used in the appropriate clinical scenario, but there are some downsides,” says study author Shannon Acker, MD, assistant professor of pediatric surgery.
Christene A. Huang, PhD, a professor of plastic and reconstructive surgery and transplant surgery in the Department of Surgery, is part of a research team that recently received a grant from the U.S. Department of Defense to study noninvasive biomarkers of VCA rejection that would allow doctors to more quickly identify potential signs of rejection and adjust immunosuppression as necessary.
Lee was recognized specifically for her work in the lab of Kia Washington, MD, a professor of plastic and reconstructive surgery whose research is devoted to restoring vision through whole eye transplantation.
"More than 3.8 million breast cancer survivors live with permanent or temporary physical and psychological consequences of treatment that impact their sexual health. However, there is limited data that advises providers on the preferred format and timing of sexual health education,” said Tevis.
"Based on my clinical experience seeing patients, my hunch was that the results would be similar between telehealth and a clinic visit,” says Abbitt, who also conducted a similar study on patients who undergo surgery to repair an inguinal hernia.
“As health care providers, we need to be asking ourselves whether we have the trust of our patients, and if we don’t, is it because we’re not providing them the information they’re seeking?” says Stewart. “We want to be the source for information and resources that patients know they can turn to.”