Presented by: Marzena Sasnal
Talk Title: “Rapid Cycle Evaluation of Qualitative Data to Implement a Pragmatic Clinical Trial”
Bio: Dr. Marzena Sasnal is a qualitative & mixed method-oriented social scientist and methodologist, experienced in migration, health services, and education research with publication record, grant support, and project management expertise. She holds a BA in international relations and affairs, an MA in sociology, and a PhD in social sciences. Dr. Sasnal currently works as Senior Research Analyst at the Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO) and is thrilled to contribute to research aiming to improve education. Before joining CREDO, she was a senior researcher at The Stanford-Surgery Policy Improvement Research and Education (S-SPIRE) Center for several years, collaborating with multidisciplinary teams to improve the value of healthcare through research that informs policy and implementation. She also served as a qualitative methodologist, providing instruction and consultation on research methods and techniques. Previously, she studied the adaptation processes of highly skilled migrants in Silicon Valley as a part of her doctoral dissertation.
Speaker: Lisa Marie Knowlton, MD, Assistant Professor of Surgery, General Surgery, Stanford University.
Talk Title: “Understanding Patient-Level Facilitators and Barriers of California Emergency Medicaid Programs”
Bio: Dr. Knowlton is a trauma and critical care surgeon and NIH funded public health researcher whose focus is on improving access to and quality of care for trauma and surgical patients. She obtained her medical degree at McGill University and completed her general surgery residency at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. Her desire to understand varied healthcare systems and develop solutions for vulnerable surgical populations led her to obtain an M.P.H. at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and complete a research fellowship at the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative. Most recently, she trained as a Surgical Critical Care fellow at Stanford University Medical Center and joined the faculty as an Assistant Professor of Surgery in early 2018.
Dr. Knowlton’s research focuses on improving health equity, addressing barriers in access to care and reducing disparities among vulnerable surgical populations, including underinsured trauma patients. She is also investigating the financial burden that injury imposes upon both patients and hospitals, with the goal of finding economically sustainable strategies for ensuring best outcomes among trauma patients. These include the study of emergency Medicaid programs at the state and national level. Dr. Knowlton’s work has been funded by the American College of Surgeons (the 17th C. James Carrico Faculty Research Fellowship), the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma (AAST) and the NIH. She has received an R21 by the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, and most recently an R01 for her work (2023-2028). Dr. Knowlton is board certified by the American Board of Surgery and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. She is a member of the AAST Diversity and Inclusion and Healthcare Economics Committees, and also serves on the Association for Academic Surgery’s Publications Committee. She was the inaugural Chair of the Associate Member Council of the AAST and currently serves as the Associate Vice Chair of Research for the Stanford Department of Surgery. She was recently recognized by the AAST by receiving the 2023 Canizaro award for best presentation and manuscript at the annual meeting. Dr. Knowlton was also selected as the 2023-24 U.S. recipient of the James IV Surgical Association Traveling Fellowship.
For inquiries, please contact Ana Mezynski at mezynski@stanford.edu.
Presented by: Dan Eisenberg, MD, Professor of Surgery (General Surgery), Stanford University
Talk Title: “Obesity in Veterans with Spinal Cord Injury – A work in progress”
Bio: I am a fellowship-trained minimally invasive and bariatric surgeon, who is involved in national surgical and specialty societies. My area of clinical and research interest is in outcomes of metabolic and bariatric surgery in special populations. As a surgeon at the Palo Alto Veterans Hospital, I am specifically interested in the outcomes of weight loss surgery in obese Veterans, who represent a population with a significant burden of co-morbidity, as well as challenging social, economic, and geographic circumstances. In addition, I am currently studying Veterans with spinal cord injury, with a goal to identify gaps in assessment and management of obesity in this special population.
For inquiries, please contact Ana Mezynski at mezynski@stanford.edu
Presented by: Albaraa Basfar, PhD
Talk Title: Underrepresented Minority Students’ Sense of Belonging in Medical School: How Does Mentorship Matter?
Bio: Albaraa Basfar Ph.D. is a Postdoctoral Scholar at the S-SPIRE Center at Stanford University. He received his Ph.D. in Educational Research and Evaluation from Ohio University in 2023. His research interests include program evaluation, research methodology, and education.
Dr. Basfar has a strong quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods research background. He has experience in managing programs, conducting research, and analyzing data. He is also proficient in using SAS, R, SPSS, and Python.
Prior to joining the S-SPIRE Center, Dr. Basfar was a Research Analyst at Pensacola State College. In this role, he was responsible for compiling, arranging, and presenting data reports for several communities and college departments. He also created and analyzed surveys, Tableau visual dashboards, and conducted data research related to grants and accreditations.
Dr. Basfar is passionate about using research to improve education and positively impact students’ lives. He is excited to continue his research at S-SPIRE and contribute to the field of Pipeline Programs.
Please contact Ana Mezynski for Venue and Zoom details.
Each week, S-SPIRE hosts a hybrid-model Work-In-Progress session (WIP) for faculty members and trainees to present their research and receive feedback. These run from September through May each year.
Our monthly WIP sessions (first Monday of every month) features Stanford and guest faculty presentations of well-developed projects. This WIP provides an opportunity to discuss high impact research and create synergy within the Stanford HSR/Surgery communities.
Presented by: Heather Selby, PhD, Postdoctoral Scholar, S-SPIRE Center, Department of Surgery, Stanford University.
Talk Title: “Enhancing the accuracy of tumor response assessment in rectal cancer using radiomics: Insights from the SFX Trial”
Bio: Heather Selby is a postdoctoral scholar at the S-SPIRE Center in the Stanford Department of Surgery. She is advised by Dr. Arden Morris, Dr. Todd Wagner, Dr. Sandy Napel, and Dr. Vipul Sheth. Her research focus is building MRI-based AI models to identify patients with locally advanced cancer patients who achieve a clinical complete response to neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy to spare them from surgery and its associated risks.
Each week, S-SPIRE hosts a hybrid-model Work-In-Progress session (WIP) for faculty members and trainees to present their research and receive feedback. These run from September through May each year.
Our monthly WIP sessions (first Monday of every month) features Stanford and guest faculty presentations of well-developed projects. This WIP provides an opportunity to discuss high impact research and create synergy within the Stanford HSR/Surgery communities.
Presented by Dr. Wick.
Talk Title: “How Can We Leverage the EHR for Evidence-Based Surgical Care: Use Cases for Surgical Site Infection and Advanced Care Planning.”
Bio: Elizabeth C. Wick, M.D. is a professor of surgery with a clinical focus in colorectal surgery. Liza was Vice Chair of Quality and Safety at Johns Hopkins and is currently in the role at UCSF. Beyond clinical care, she has excelled as a mentor and researcher, promoting scholarship amongst trainees and junior faculty. She has been continuously funded by the NIH/AHRQ, most recently with an NIA-funded pragmatic trial to better understand implementation approaches to accelerate the adoption of advanced care planning in surgery. Previously, she led a national collaborative, in partnership with the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and the American College of Surgeons, around accelerating the dissemination of surgical pathways across four surgical areas (colorectal, gynecology, orthopedics, and emergency general surgery) over five years.
Anyone can attend and happy hour conditions apply here too.
For inquiries, please contact Ana Mezynski <mezynski@stanford.edu>
Presented by: Christopher Stave, MLS, Librarian, Lane Medical Library, Stanford University
Talk Title: Literature Review
Bio: Christopher Stave, MLS, is a Research & Instruction Librarian at Lane Medical Library. Christopher has extensive experience in medical and academic libraries and plays a key role in guiding users in evidence-based medicine, systematic reviews, and advanced research methodologies. Christopher is also the library liaison for the Departments of Graduate Medical Education, Surgery, Emergency Medicine, and Pediatrics.
For inquiries, please contact Ana Mezynski.
Presented by: Cintia Kimura, Resident in Surgery, Department of Surgery, Stanford University
Talk Title: “Does prehabilitation improve surgical outcomes? Results from the Preoperative Optimization with Enhanced Recovery (POWER) study”
Each week, S-SPIRE hosts a hybrid-model Work-In-Progress session (WIP) for faculty members and trainees to present their research and receive feedback. These run from September through May each year.
Our monthly WIP sessions (first Monday of every month) features Stanford and guest faculty presentations of well-developed projects. This WIP provides an opportunity to discuss high impact research and create synergy within the Stanford HSR/Surgery communities.
Our weekly WIP sessions feature trainees and faculty projects in every phase of development—from drafting specific aims pages, to parsing grant review committee comments, to abstracts/papers/methods in preparation.
Anyone can attend and happy hour conditions apply here too.
For inquiries, please contact Ana Mezynski <mezynski@stanford.edu>
Presented by: Aaron Dawes, MD, Assistant Professor of Surgery, General Surgery, Stanford University.
Talk Title: TBD
Each week, S-SPIRE hosts a hybrid-model Work-In-Progress session (WIP) for faculty members and trainees to present their research and receive feedback. These run from September through May each year.
Our monthly WIP sessions (first Monday of every month) features Stanford and guest faculty presentations of well-developed projects. This WIP provides an opportunity to discuss high impact research and create synergy within the Stanford HSR/Surgery communities.
Our weekly WIP sessions feature trainees and faculty projects in every phase of development—from drafting specific aims pages, to parsing grant review committee comments, to abstracts/papers/methods in preparation.
Anyone can attend and happy hour conditions apply here too.
For inquiries, please contact Ana Mezynski <mezynski@stanford.edu>