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.
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: Arden Morris, MD, Robert L. and Mary Ellenburg Professor of Surgery, and Professor, by Courtesy, of Health Policy.
Director and Vice Chair of Clinical Research, S-SPIRE Center.
BIo: Arden M. Morris, MD, MPH is Professor of Surgery and Vice-Chair for Research in the Stanford Department of Surgery. She is Director of the S-SPIRE Center, a health services research collaborative to study patient-centered care, clinical optimization, and health care economics. In her own work, Dr. Morris uses quantitative and qualitative research methods to focus on quality of and equity in cancer care. She serves as vice-chair of the Commission on Cancer’s National Accreditation Program for Rectal Cancer Quality Committee, American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons’ representative to the American Joint Commission on Cancer, and Chair of the ACS Cancer Surgery Standards Program Implementation and Integration Committee.
Presented by: Clifford Sheckter, MD, Assistant Professor of Surgery, Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Stanford University.
Bio: Dr. Cliff Sheckter is a California native, growing up in the rural Eastern Sierra. He graduated from UCLA with a BS in Anthropology and earned summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa honors. He attended USC (Keck) for medical school on an academic scholarship and graduated valedictorian with Alpha Omega Alpha honors. He fell in love with burn care while at USC/LA General Medical Center and completed his surgical training at Stanford. While in residency, he pursued a fellowship/postdoc in Health Systems Design at Stanford’s Clinical Excellence Research Center (CERC). He earned an MS in Health Policy from Stanford, focusing on health economics. He received additional training in Surgical Critical Care and Burn Surgery at the University of Washington.
Presented by: Christopher Stave, MLA, Information Services Librarian, School of Medicine, Lane Library
Bio:Christopher Stave, MLA, is librarian and member of Lane Library’s Research & Instruction team. Christopher serves as Lane’s Graduate/Clinical Education Librarian, and acts as the liaison between Lane and the Department of Graduate Medical Education. Christopher is also the designated librarian for the departments of Surgery, Emergency Medicine, and Pediatrics.
Presented by: Marc Melcher, MD, Professor of Surgery, Abdominal Transplantation, Stanford University
Bio: I am committed to figuring out how more people can benefit from liver and kidney transplants. Patients are dying while waiting for these organs. Therefore, my clinical and research efforts are focused on increasing the number of patients whose lives can be saved with transplantation.
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.