Hume-Lee — which consistently ranks among the nation's leading and most surgically advanced transplant programs — performed 494 transplants in 2021, eclipsing the 459 in 2020 and the 434 in 2019. In 2021, they transplanted 284 kidneys, 164 livers, 37 hearts, and nine pancreases. Read more about the team's incredible accomplishment here!

VCU Division of Urology is beyond thrilled to announce their AUA Match results. For the first time in history there is an all female class with the addition of the complement increase to 3 residents per year. Women are underrepresented in the field so our commitment to diversity and narrowing the gender gap in urology is important for the future of surgery. We couldn’t be more excited to welcome our new residents to the VCU Health Urology family. Congratulations to all who matched!

The American College of Surgeons renewed its verification of VCU Medical Center as a Level I trauma center, recognizing the hospital's dedication to the highest quality care. We were successfully reverified for 3 more years with overwhelming recognition for our PI program, research, regional and national trauma system involvement and most importantly, outstanding outcomes. Congratulations to the team – this reverification is one of the most rigorous reviews that an organization can undergo!

Congratulations to the Division of Bariatric and GI Surgery for being recognized for their clinic research! The American College of Surgeons featured an article written by Dr. Pessoa, their former research fellow, in their "Bulletin of the ACS" section "New Crucial Literature: The Science You Need to Know". View the article here.

Amelia Grover, MD Co-Investigator and her team have been awarded the HRSA (Health Resources and Services Administration) Grant for their Strength in Caring (SCP) project and will receive $500,000/year for 3 years. The SCP project is designed to improve the wellness of the health care workforce by addressing organizational and system factors. With targeted outcomes of decreasing administrative burden and bureaucracy and positive effects on retention, engagement, and psychological safety. Initial work will focus on training for leaders with also the development of division-based wellness ambassadors. Overall, the 5 goals of the project include:

Mazhar Kanak, PhD and his team submitted their grant titled "Bioengineering islets with aptamers that block IBMIR in islet transplantation" as a Discovery Award to the DOD and it was successfully funded! Dr. Kanak joined forces with Drs. Dhakal and Fuglestad on the study with the vision to utilize small synthetic oligos called “aptamers” that have anti-inflammatory potential and encapsulate them onto the surface of the islets before transplantation. This is a highly novel technique of bioengineering islet cells before transplantation to improve long-term graft survival outcomes. Congratulations to the team!

The 2022 VCU Health System goals focus around major contributing factors to Patient Safety, Patient Experience and outcomes. Key Performance Measures (KPIs) that we look at systematically also include Mortalities, Length of Stay, Readmissions, and PSIs. In addition to these pieces of data, there is also unit Infection Prevention measures, division databases and more! The Surgery QAPI Steering Committee reviews all the information and focuses efforts to improve these areas and provide a collaborative team approach to improving the care of our patients. For more information on the Surgery QAPI work, contact co-chairs Dr. Robert Larson, Kelly Carter, Nursing Director for Surgery or Performance Improvement staff members Debbie Mobley or Jaysa Cecil. It takes an entire team to improve the safety and quality of our care and your efforts are greatly appreciated! Check Surgery Department newsletter each month for our new “Quality Corner”.

The VCU Program for Global Surgery and the Global Surgery Student Alliance at VCU held their monthly Global Health Seminar Series on January 19. January's guest speaker featured Jeffrey R. Donowitz, MD, Assistant Professor of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at the Children's Hospital of Richmond at VCU.

Join the VCU Health Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, in collaboration with VCU Health Arts In Healthcare, for a celebration of Black History Month. VCU Health leadership will be joined by Dr. Amy Tillerson-Brown, Dean of the Mary Baldwin College for Women, who will deliver the keynote. The event will also feature spoken word poetry from VCU students. Join here.