Presented by: Salva Balbale, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine, Surgery, and Medical Social Sciences at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine.
Talk Title: “Chronic Opioid Use in Young Adults with IBD + Digestive Disorders: Research in Progress.”

Bio: Dr. Balbale is an Assistant Professor in the Departments of Medicine, Surgery, and Medical Social Sciences at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. She is a member of the Center for Health Services and Outcomes Research (CHSOR) and Northwestern’s Quality Improvement, Research, & Education in Surgery (NQUIRES) Center within Feinberg’s Institute for Public Health and Medicine.

Dr. Balbale is also a Research Health Scientist in the Center of Innovation for Complex Chronic Healthcare at the Hines Veterans Affairs (VA) Hospital. As a health services researcher focused on making care safer, better coordinated, and more patient-centered for individuals with complex, chronic disorders such as inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD).

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; Jeff Choi, MD, General Surgery Chief Resident, Department of Surgery, Stanford University
Talk Title: “Data Science to Improve Trauma Care Delivery.”

Bio: General surgery resident (2017-2025; administrative chief resident 2024-2025), incoming surgical critical care fellow (2025-2026). MS in Epidemiology & Clinical Research (2019-2020), and Biomedical Informatics (2020-2022). Ex-president of Surgeons Writing About Trauma. Founding course instructor of SURG238: Practical Introduction to Surgical Research.

My research vision is to save or better the most possible number of lives using data. Our group focuses on:

1) building and implementing useful clinical prediction tools
2) bringing various AI applications (e.g. NLP, vision) to the bedside
3) challenging dogma in surgical practice with contemporary data

My passions are advocating for higher statistical and machine learning methodology quality in surgical literature , and fostering the growth of the next generation of surgeon data scientists.

For inquiries, please contact Ana Mezynski <mezynski@stanford.edu>

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.

For inquiries, please contact Ana Mezynski <mezynski@stanford.edu>