Surgical Notes
From the Chair
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Colleagues,
As you will see below, we have much to be excited about this month. Many of our faculty were promoted and our faculty, staff, and trainees have been recognized in amazing ways.
Additionally, we are welcoming our newest trainees as they began their journeys with VCU Surgery on July 1. If you see them in the halls, please be sure to stop, introduce yourself, and say hello.
Best wishes for an amazing Independence Day weekend.
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Congratulations to the following Department of Surgery faculty for their recent promotions, all effective July 1st.
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Amelia Grover, MD
Professor
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Santosh Kale, MD
Associate Professor
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Anthony Cassano, MD
Professor
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Michel Aboutanos, MD
Professor with Tenure
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Guilherme M. Campos, MD
Professor with Tenure
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Patricia Nicolato, DO
Associate Professor
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Marlon Levy, MD
Professor with Tenure
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World Expert in Laparoscopy
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Congratulations to Dr.
Riccardo Autorino
for being recognized as one of the world experts in laparoscopy by
Expertscape
. Specifically he is placed among the top 0.0018% of scholars in this field.
Featured on Good Morning America and NPR, Expertscape was founded on the principle that patients should be able to research physicians and identify the true experts in the field. Dr. Autorino is now one of those!
A link to Dr. Autorino's Expert Page can be found
here
.
Congratulations, Dr. Autorino!
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Summer Research Student Awards
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Dr.
Adam Klausner
, Professor and Associate Chair for Clinical and Translational Research has two medical students, Priscilla Koriala and Urmila Sivagnanalingam, who were both awarded VCU School of Medicine summer research fellowships.
This is the third year in a row and the seventh student working with Drs. Klausner &
John Speich
(Engineering) to have received funding. The application was due in March (prior to the summer) and covers a 7-8 week period starting after Memorial Day. The students get a stipend of $2500.00 for the summer.
Urmila, with a Bachelor's in Microbiology and Master's in Science, is a rising second-year medical student. Her interests include volunteering with refugee populations and engaging in student-run clinics, hiking, and baking.
Priscilla, also a rising second-year medical student, graduated from Randolph-Macon with a Bachelor's in Chemistry. In her free time she likes to meet new people and try new foods.
Both students
will be using real-time sensation and hemodynamic evaluation of the brain and bladder to identify a novel approach to diagnosing brain-associated overactive bladder and bladder-associated OAB phenotype.
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Priscilla Koriala
Medical Student
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Urmila Sivagnanalingam
Medical Student
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Scientific Forum, ACS Clinical Congress, 2019
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Congratulations to Dr.
Guilherme Campos
(Professor and Division Chair, Bariatric and Gastrointestinal Surgery) for his abstract being accepted for presentation at the Scientific Forum at the ACS Clinical Congress 2019.
His abstract, "960-Factors Mediating Durability of Type 2 Diabetes Remission and Relapse after Gastric Bypass Surgery," was among the top 5% of almost 2,000 submissions. Additionally, the team has been invited to submit a full manuscript for expedited review to be published in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons.
Dr. Bernardo Pessoa, visiting research scholar, will be presenting on behalf of Dr. Campos and team.
Congratulations!
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Inpatient Children's Hospital Ground Breaking
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The
new facility
is the next step in our vision to advance children’s health and to deliver on the promises we’ve made to our community. We heard our families, team members and community when they said how critical it was to have a dedicated pediatric inpatient environment with proximity to our award-winning Children’s Pavilion. In 2022 when the facility is complete we’ll have an entire city block dedicated to caring for kids!
Saturday was truly about our future and represented a new beginning. We were reminded by a parent in her remarks that the groundbreaking is a great day – but within the walls of the new hospital we will care for families experiencing some of their worst days – whether it’s a life-changing diagnosis or traumatic injury. While the new facility will be a colorful, open environment designed for healing – we know caring for children and families is about so much more than just a building. It takes a great team. Thank you to everyone across CHoR, VCU Health and Children’s Hospital Foundation for helping us ensure that kids come first each and every day.
I encourage you to watch our
groundbreaking recap video
to hear an exciting announcement from Children’s Hospital Foundation and inspiring remarks from local government officials, leadership and a CHoR family.
Look closely and you’ll notice our new logo in the video. The refreshed mark also represents a new beginning and is a visual representation of our renewed dedication to elevate children’s health. We teased the new logo out at the groundbreaking, and as the summer continues, you’ll see a much more concentrated effort in updating our brand – culminating with an internal brand launch celebration and powerful advertising campaign in August.
There is so much momentum around children’s health in our community, and I’m honored to be a part of the team."
* Message from Elias Neujahr, CEO, Children's Hospital of Richmond at VCU
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Congratulations to Dr.
Martin Mangino
, Professor and Associate Chair for Basic Research on a patent recently issued for his technology, Organ Protection Solutions.
This patent covers the use of new cell impermeant solutions given intravenously in many medical conditions based on poor perfusion of tissues, acute resuscitation, ICU care, and organ preservation for transplantation. The patent describes in detail the molecular weights, concentrations, volumes of use, and routes of administration.
Congratulations, Dr. Mangino!
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Journal of Pediatric Urology
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Congratulations to Dr.
Tony Herndon
, Endowed Professor and co-Surgeon in Chief with the Children's Hospital of Richmond at VCU for being appointed as Associate Editor-in-Chief for the Journal of Pediatric Urology.
This position will matriculate to Editor-in-Chief in two years.
Congratulations, Dr. Herndon!
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M3 Clerkship Teaching Awards
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Congratulations are due to the following faculty and trainees for receiving various clerkship teaching and research awards from the Department of Surgery.
General Surgery Faculty Teaching Award
Honorable Mention General Surgery Faculty Teaching Award
Subspecialty Faculty Teaching Award
Notable New Faculty Member Award
General Surgery Resident Teaching Award
Dr. Woon Cho Kim
Honorable Mention General Surgery Resident Teaching Award
Dr. Nathaniel Lee
Subspecialty Resident Teaching Award
Dr. Randy Vince
General Surgery Intern Teaching Award
Dr. Yahya Alwatari
Honorable Mention General Surgery Intern Teaching Award
Dr. Christine Bierema
Skills and Simulation Teaching Awards
Dr. Wayne Tse
Dr. Nina Wickramaratne
Dr. Ben Rothstein
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Congratulations to Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery resident, Dr. Jeremy Powers, for matching into his fellowship program!
Dr. Powers will be heading to Detroit, Michigan to the Royal Oak Beaumont Hospital. His match program is Integrated Reconstructive Microsurgery and Craniomaxillofacial Surgery Fellowship.
For more information in this program,
click here
.
Well done, Dr. Powers! Best of luck!
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Bethune Round Table Global Surgery Conference
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General Surgery Research Resident Ashley Rosenberg, MD recently gave an oral and poster presentation at Bethune Round Table Global Surgery Conference in Edmonton, Canada.
The title of her oral presentation was "Innovative Mobile Solutions for Ambulances."
The title of her poster presentation was “Prehospital Emergency Obstetric Care in Kigali, Rwanda.” She had the opportunity to present with Rwandan OB/GYN attending Dr. David Ntirushwa who worked with her on the project last year in Rwanda.
Congratulations, Dr. Rosenberg!
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Minimally Invasive Transplant Surgery Section
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"The VCU Health Hume-Lee Transplant Center will establish a minimally invasive section of transplant surgery on July 1.
The dedicated section doubles down on VCU Health’s commitment to provide patient-centered surgical care with leading technology, including robotic-assisted and laparoscopic transplantation.
Chandra Bhati
, M.D., has been named chief of the new minimally invasive section and will lead a team of transplant surgeons who specialize in kidney, liver and pancreas transplants. The section will provide a formal structure under which the team can build on the center’s history of innovation, in addition to preparing the next generation of transplant surgeons through robotics fellowship training.
'This is emblematic of our continued drive to deliver outstanding patient care,” said
Marlon Levy
, M.D., chair of the Division of Transplant Surgery and director of the Hume-Lee Transplant Center. “In many ways, the new section will help consolidate what we have learned as a leader in minimally invasive transplantation and will help us remain forward-looking in our enhancement of this care delivery for our patients....'"
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Gayle Meadows, who served the Department of Surgery and VCU for over 45 years, recently retired effective July 1. We celebrated her many years of service and incredible accomplishments recently at a reception in her honor.
Congratulations Gayle! Enjoy your retirement!
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Meet Robin Kelsey, Administrative MHA Intern for the Department of Surgery. Robin joined the department in 2018. In her role, she facilitates many administrative projects and is responsible for the departmental quality and financial dashboards.
When asked about the most exciting part of her role, she responded "the most exciting part of my job is getting to learn from and collaborate with the dedicated and innovative minds within the Department of Surgery [while] gaining knowledge in a real-world setting alongside my classroom education as a Master's student at VCU." She finds great satisfaction working with our healthcare providers and administrators, witnessing firsthand the difference we can make in patients's lives through empathy and compassion at the forefront of all initiatives.
Outside of work you will find Robin running (hopefully a full marathon soon!), hiking, backpacking, and visiting her family in Asheville, North Carolina.
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"
CareerBuilder found
that nearly half of American workers check email after they leave work, and 45% say they do work during non-business hours. And this phenomenon crosses global borders, prompting new laws in France and a campaign in Japan to limit working hours."
With that growing trend, it's important to understand how to balance it all.
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Research Open Forum
Monthly, 2nd Mondays
4:00 - 5:00 PM
West 16 Conference Room (16-103)
All are encouraged to attend!
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Department of Surgery | Virginia Commonwealth University | (804)828-7874 | surgweb@vcu.edu
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