A NEWSLETTER FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF SURGERY

at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston

Congratulations to our 2023 Star Awardees

Each year, UTHealth Houston celebrates the leadership and longevity of our employees by recognizing their milestone years of service at the university. Our employees are UTHealth Houston’s greatest asset, and their commitment and dedication to the university are remarkable.

The university is honoring more than 1,000 of our STARs this year, including faculty and staff who are celebrating five, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, or 55 years of service.

Congratulations to all our awardees receiving a STAR Award this year.

Scerbo Achieves Board Certification in Clinical Informatics

Shelley Scerbo, MD, MS, FACS, assistant professor in the Department of Surgery, achieved board certification in Clinical Informatics from the American Board of Preventive Medicine. Scerbo completed the practice pathway to board certification, which is available until 2025. Eligibility for this pathway required an unrestricted medical license, medical degree, primary specialty certification, completing a Masters in Health Informatics, and involvement in informatics projects. The 2023 exam had a 76% pass rate. 

Procedural specialties are underrepresented in clinical informatics. In 2022, there were only 54 individuals dual certified in clinical informatics by the American Board of Surgery and in clinical informatics by the American Board of Preventive Medicine, representing 2.4% of all individuals certified in clinical informatics. The state of Texas has below the national average of clinical informatics subspecialists, with only 1.2 clinical informaticists per 1000 active physicians (national average 2.2). 

Scerbo holds primary specialty certification from the American Board of Surgery and completed a Master of Health Informatics from the McWilliams School of Biomedical Informatics in 2016. Scerbo is an active member of the Memorial Hermann Informatics Clinical Programs Committee, serves as the Surgery Rapid Implementation Group physician lead for the Memorial Hermann Epic Implementation, a physician builder, and the editor of the surgery order sets for the Memorial Hermann System. 

Impressive Representation at 19th Annual Academic Surgical Congress

The 19th Annual Academic Surgical Congress was held February 6-8, 2024, in Washington, DC. This is the joint annual meeting of the Association for Academic Surgery (AAS) and the Society of University Surgeons (SUS). As usual, with multiple presentations, McGovern Medical School had great representation at the meeting. Seven medical students had presentations with Faculty mentors in the Department of Surgery and 5 of our residents. The meeting was well attended by multiple faculty, including two of AAS' past presidents, our very own Tien C. Ko, MD, FACS (AAS President, 2002), and Lillian S. Kao, MD, MS, FACS (AAS President, 2014). We were also pleased to learn that Christina L. Roland, MD, MS, FACS (MDA Assoc Prof of Surg), was nominated and appointed to the post of Secretary within the AAS. 

Congratulations to everyone who presented, and we look forward to AAS 2025 in Vegas!

Drs. Elias Chamely, Mo Fajemisin, Krysta Sutyak and Stephanie Martinez-Ugarte at the 2024 Academic Surgical Congress.

McGovern medical student Jackson Burns presenting his work on Health Literacy

Dr. KuoJen Tsao (right) and his research mentees Dr. Krysta Sutyak (center), and medical students Neil Jayarajan, Yasmine Young and Isabella Anderson.

Dr. Mokunfayo "Mo" Fajemisin educating the room on the importance of oral health in critically ill trauma patients

Dr. Stephanie Martinez-Ugarte presents her research on inflammatory biomarkers and SSIs in trauma patients.

Italian Dinner on Tuesday night with 17 of the McGovern crew in DC

UTHealth Houston Leads in Transformative Trauma Research

Check out exclusive footage from the latest TRC4 event on their YouTube page! https://youtu.be/OsMAm-9SJfc.

The Trauma Research and Combat Casualty Care Collaborative (TRC4) held its inaugural UT System Trauma Research Symposium February 20-21 in Austin, Texas. The TRC4 was established in November 2022 by the UT Board of Regents and funded in part by Texas lawmakers. Serving all UT academic and health institutions, the TRC4 aims to improve trauma care in Texas and the United States through transformative research.

Lillian Kao, MD, MS, FACS, Professor and Chief of the Division of Acute Care Surgery at UTHealth Houston, gave one of the keynote speeches on “Operationalizing a Learning Health System”. The talk detailed the characteristics to rapidly and continuously learn and innovate while delivering patient care. Commander Shane Jensen, MD, FACS, USN, gave the military keynote address on “The Deployed Experience… and Where We Need Research Initiatives." Commander Jensen is the Navy Lead for the Defense Health Agency, Trauma and Critical Care Clinical Community. He is also a Staff Physician at UTHealth Houston in the Division of Acute Care Surgery. Other talks from UTHealth Houston included an overview of “Cellular Therapeutics for Neurologic Injuries: Clinical Trials and Mechanistic Considerations” given by Charles Cox, MD, FACS, Director of the Center for Translational Injury Research (CeTIR), and “A Decade’s Work in Radically Transforming the Resuscitation of Hemorrhage in Trauma” given by Bryan Cotton, MD, MPH, FACS, Program Director of the Acute Care Surgery and Surgical Critical Care Programs. Both talks highlighted UTHealth Houston’s long-standing experience and expertise as a leader in translational injury research.

Multi-disciplinary investigators from UTHealth Houston submitted 30 applications to the TRC4’s first-round request for research funding, representing 26% of the applications from UT academic and health institutions.

Commander Jensen speaking on The Deployed Experience.

The UTHealth Houston team of trauma researchers.

Dr. Cox speaking on Cellular Therapies for Neurological Injuries.

Dr. Kao speaking on Operationalizing a Learning Health System.

Dr. Cotton speaking on Resuscitation of Hemorrhage in Trauma.

UTHealth Houston Surgeons Present at a Snowmass Gathering on Trauma Research

The 53rd annual meeting of the Western Trauma Association (WTA) was held in Snowmass, Colorado from February 25th to March 1st. The WTA aims not only to share knowledge with each other but also to promote camaraderie through gatherings of friends and family and winter sports. The Chair of the Program Committee for this successful meeting was professor, Laura J. Moore, MD, FACS. 

Although competition is fierce for spots on the program, researchers from UTHealth Houston presented 3 impactful papers at this meeting:

• "Exposure to Statin Therapy Decreases Incidence of VTE After Trauma" - presented by Kelly Sanders, DO, research resident (Senior author: Jessica Cardenas, PhD)
• "Ten Thousand Repetitions: Getting VTE Prophylaxis Right" - presented by Anna Mydlowska, MD, acute care surgery fellow (Senior author: Laura J. Moore, MD, FACS)
• "Are Trauma Centers Penalized for Improved Prehospital Resuscitation?: The Effect of Prehospital Transfusion on Arrival Vitals and Predicted Mortality" - presented by Thomas Clements, MD, FACS, burn fellow (Senior author: Bryan A. Cotton, MD, MPH)



These presentations highlight the innovations in trauma research ongoing at the Center for Translational Injury Research (CeTIR) and the significant lessons learned from managing patients at a high-volume trauma center (with over 10,000 patients treated per year).

Success and Celebration: Highlights from the South Texas Chapter of the American College of Surgeons Annual Meeting 2024

Last weekend, the South Texas Chapter of the American College of Surgeons (ACS) held its Annual Meeting from Feb 29th - March 2nd here in town, at the Houston Marriott Medical Center. Having a local meeting always means a strong McGovern presence, and there were several highlights.

The meeting kicked off on Thursday Night with the first round of Surgical Jeopardy. Surgical residents Ashley Dawson, MD, Devi Bavishi, MD, and Kylie Holden, MD, MS, had a strong performance but fell short during Final Jeopardy and did not make it into the next round. 

On Friday, along with multiple presentations by our medical students, residents, and fellows (listed below), our own Tamara E. Saunders, MD, FACS, assistant professor in the Department of Surgery, was an expert panelist during the "Stump the Attendings" session, during the Breast portion. There was robust discussion amongst the panel, but as we anticipated, Saunders was not to be messed with as she breezed through the complex scenarios. The day ended with chief residents Keith Burczak, DO, and Ricardo Collazo, MD, giving their best effort during the surgical skills competition, battling against ten other resident teams. Julie Holihan, MD, FACS, assistant professor and Council Member of the South Texas Chapter, was one of the competition judges. 

The final round of Surgical Jeopardy was then co-hosted by Kevin P. Lally, MD, MS, chair of the Department of Pediatric Surgery, who was in fine form as he kept the crowd entertained throughout. The evening ended with a happy hour and social. 

Saturday kicked off with the ePoster Competition, with multiple submissions from McGovern represented (listed below), followed by a few more podium presentations. The Chapter's Business meeting ended the day with Department of Surgery Professor H. Randolph Bailey, MD, FACS, making an inspiring plea to give to the ACS Foundation to support scholarships and other benefits for members. As a result of his and Lillian S. Kao, MD, MS, FACS, professor, and Jack H. Mayfield, MD, Chair in the Department of Surgery, matching pledges, the chapter raised $10K for the foundation during the meeting! Beth Carona, Director of the ACS Foundation, called this one of the most successful chapter meetings of the year. President-Elect Lillian S. Kao, MD, MS, FACS, also ascended into her role as Chapter President for the upcoming year. Congratulations , Dr. Kao!

McGovern had much to be proud of during the Awards ceremony, with Joshua Haag winning the best trauma paper for his project on trauma hot spotting; his faculty mentor was assistant professor, David E. Meyer, MD, MS, FACS. Additionally, Madeline Cotton, also a medical student, won the best poster amongst 20 excellent trauma posters. Her faculty mentor was Dr. Jessica Cardenas, who is an Adjunct Assistant Professor. 

The meeting was a wonderful reminder of the importance of the College and the benefits that membership provides. For residents interested in getting involved in the College's work, we would encourage all of you to join the Resident and Associate Society of the College (RAS-ACS). Their mission is to acquaint you with the various programs and leadership within the College, offer a platform for your active involvement in ACS activities, and ensure that the leadership of the College acknowledges your voices. Membership for residents is free. Elias Chamely, MD, in his role as a RAS Liaison to the ACS, also sits on the RAS Membership Committee and would be happy to answer any questions you may have about joining. 

It was a great meeting, enjoyed by everyone in attendance.

Surgeons Discuss Prevention and Treatment of Surgical Site Infections

In the latest episode of Surgical Readings from SRGS, host Rick Greene, MD, FACS, talks to Lillian S. Kao, MD, MS, FACS, about prevention and treatment of surgical site infections. Topics covered include bacterial resistance to antimicrobial drugs, novel therapies on the horizon, and lessons learned from viruses such as COVID and Mpox.

Listen Now!

Transplant program’s growth gives new life, hope

The lack of donors for kidney transplants is a growing public health crisis in the United States, with more than 90,000 people waiting for a kidney but only 20,000 transplants performed annually.

The Division of Immunology and Organ Transplantation in the Department of Surgery is working to shrink this gap, increasing its live donor kidney transplant volume substantially in the last 2 years.

In 2023, the team, led by Steve Bynon, MD, division director and professor of surgery, and Hassan Ibrahim, MD, medical director of abdominal transplantation, completed 132 kidney transplants – 44 from deceased donors and 88 from live donations – the highest annual volume in the history of the program.

This significant increase in transplant volume is also accompanied by positive results. “According to national measures, our program ranks number one nationally,” Bynon said. “I’m really proud of our transplant program and team – we have worked hard over the last 12 years to achieve these outcomes. It reflects our team’s commitment to patient care and excellence in outcomes.”

Read the full story…

Publications of Note

Cotton BA. Delays in intervention: a post-mortem of the UK-REBOA and CRYOSTAT-2 trials. Br J Surg. 2024 Jan 31;111(2):znae031. doi: 10.1093/bjs/znae031. PMID: 38377360.

Kalkwarf KJ, Cotton BA. Invited Commentary to "Performance Improvement Program Review of Institutional Massive Transfusion Protocol Adherence: An Opportunity for Improvement". Am Surg. 2024 Feb 1:31348221103655. doi: 10.1177/00031348221103655. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 38298063.

Kregel HR, Hatton GE, Harvin JA, Puzio TJ, Wade CE, Kao LS. Identifying Age-specific Risk Factors for Poor Outcomes After Trauma With Machine Learning. J Surg Res. 2024 Feb 5;296:465-471. doi: 10.1016/j.jss.2023.12.016. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 38320366.

Naumann DN, Bhangu A, Brooks A, Martin M, Cotton BA, Khan M, Midwinter MJ, Pearce L, Bowley DM, Holcomb JB, Griffiths EA; BEACON Collaborative. Novel Textbook Outcomes following emergency laparotomy: Delphi exercise. BJS Open. 2024 Jan 3;8(1):zrad145. doi: 10.1093/bjsopen/zrad145. PMID: 38284399; PMCID: PMC10823418.

Ordoñez CA, Parra MW, Caicedo Y, Rodríguez-Holguín F, García AF, Serna JJ, Serna C, Franco MJ, Salcedo A, Padilla-Londoño N, Herrera-Escobar JP, Zogg C, Orlas CP, Palacios H, Saldarriaga L, Granados M, Scalea T, McGreevy DT, Kessel B, Hörer TM, Dubose J, Brenner M; AAST-AORTA Investigators* (Moore LJ), ABO Trauma Registry Group*. Critical systolic blood pressure threshold for endovascular aortic occlusion-A multinational analysis to determine when to place a REBOA. J Trauma Acute Care Surg. 2024 Feb 1;96(2):247-255. doi: 10.1097/TA.0000000000004160. Epub 2023 Oct 19. PMID: 37853558.

Schmidt S, Jacobs MA, Kim J, Hall DE, Stitzenberg KB, Kao LS, Brimhall BB, Wang CP, Manuel LS, Su HD, Silverstein JC, Shireman PK. Presentation Acuity and Surgical Outcomes for Patients With Health Insurance Living in Highly Deprived Neighborhoods. JAMA Surg. 2024 Feb 7:e237468. doi: 10.1001/jamasurg.2023.7468. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 38324306; PMCID: PMC10851138.

Scott MC, LeBlanc O, Day H, Haase C, Olson SD, Cox CS Jr. Cytokine Release by Microglia Exposed to Neurologic Injury Is Amplified by Lipopolysaccharide. J Surg Res. 2024 Jan 25;296:142-148. doi: 10.1016/j.jss.2023.12.021. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 38277950.

Treffalls RN, DuBose JJ, Brenner M, Piccinini A, Inaba K, Scalea TM, Moore LJ, Kauvar DS; Aortic Occlusion for Resuscitation in Trauma and Acute Care Surgery (AORTA) Investigators. Outcomes Associated With Aortic Balloon Occlusion Time in Patients With Zone 1 Resuscitative Endovascular Balloon Occlusion of the Aorta. J Surg Res. 2024 Jan 30;296:256-264. doi: 10.1016/j.jss.2023.12.044. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 38295713.

Kidney transplant patients and their donors met face to face in a celebration hosted by #UTHealthHouston filled with gratitude, joy, and endless appreciation on #NationalDonorDay.

These donors and recipients were not direct one-to-one matches between family members, which makes the bond even more remarkable. And now, thanks to the selfless acts of their donors, these recipients have been given a second chance at life.

Editorial Team: Dr. Lillian S. Kao, Dr. Casey B. Duncan, Dr. Peter A. Walker, and Dr. Elias A. Chamely

For content submissions, email Sophia.M.Solis@uth.tmc.edu.