On Tuesday, February 25th, the Department of Surgery celebrated the 24th Samuel A. Wells, Jr., MD, Resident Research Day.
Wells Day is an esteemed annual event dedicated to highlighting the research efforts of surgical residents. The main objective of this event is to provide a platform where residents can present their research findings, through both oral presentations and posters. This day encourages academic growth among the residents and promotes a culture of research and innovation within the medical community.
Residents have the opportunity to share their work with peers, faculty members, and other attendees, fostering an environment of collaboration and scholarly exchange. The event gives residents the opportunity to showcase their research while also offering them a chance to improve their presentation and communication skills by presenting to a knowledgeable audience.
This year, the department invited Elliot L. Chaikof, MD, PhD, Johnson and Johnson Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School, the chair of the Roberta and Stephen R. Weiner Department of Surgery and chief surgeon at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, as the 24th Samuel A. Wells Visiting Professor.
Residents, faculty, and invited guests convened in the atrium of Farrell Teaching and Learning Center for the poster viewing, before changing venue to the Moore Auditorium for podium presentation finalists.
Resident research is divided into two broad categories: Basic and Translational Research and Clinical, Outcomes, Innovation and Education Research. This year there were 16 participating researchers presenting their abstracts in the poster session, of whom, 4 were selected as finalists to present their research at the podium and discuss their findings with invited discussants.
Oral presentations were introduced by Ryan Fields, MD, Kim and Tim Eberlein Distinguished Professor, chief of the Section of Surgical Oncology and director of resident research for the general surgery residency program.
Finalists
The finalists who were selected to present their research at the podium were Steven Tohmasi, MD, Shaleen Sathe, MD, Daniel Colchado, MD, and Usman Panni, MD.
Tohmasi, who represented the research program of Graham Colditz, MD, DrPH, and Li-Shiun Chen, MD, and Sathe, who represented the research program of Dominic Sanford, MD, competed in the category of Clinical, Outcomes, Innovation and Education Research.
Colchado, who represented the plastic surgery research program of Matthew Wood, PhD, and Xiaowei Li, PhD, and Panni, who represented the oncology research program of David DeNardo, PhD, and William Gillanders, MD, competed in the category of Basic and Translational Research.
Discussion
Tohmasi’s podium presentation covered the impact and survival of advanced-stage cancer patients who quit smoking after diagnosis. The presentation used real-world evidence from WashU, a National Cancer Institute (NCI)-designated comprehensive cancer center. The invited discussant was Theodore Thomas, MD, MPHS, from the Division of Oncology.
Thomas offered data to corroborate Tohmasi’s findings, adding that smoking cessation not only leads to better lung cancer treatment outcomes, but also general health outcomes. Tohmasi acknowledged that the Electronic Health Record-Enabled Evidence-Based Smoking Cessation Treatment (ELEVATE) strategy being made available to patients at point-of-health, rather than referring the patient to an outside office, enables care providers to treat both the patient’s oncological needs as well as their tobacco use.
Sathe’s presentation highlighted the benefits of a department-wide prehabilitation protocol, Surgical Prehabilitation and Readiness (SPAR), as it relates to the high percentage of elderly patients, with patients over the age of 65 making up one third of the patient population in the US. Her research found that it is both safe and feasible to implement programs like SPAR. Additionally, SPAR saves lives, helps maintain functional independence and allows faster recovery.
Preoperative physical fitness, nutritional status, pulmonary health, and depression and anxiety levels are all predictive factors for surgical outcomes and potentially modifiable targets for intervention. Carolyn McCourt, MD, of the Division of Gynecologic Oncology was the invited discussant for Sathe’s presentation. McCourt suggested that limitations in different cohorts of patients may require a focused approach to prove the effectiveness of prehabilitation as a mitigating factor in complications such as pneumonia and UTI.
Colchado’s podium addressed the clinical burden of peripheral nerve injuries. His research studied the potential of utilizing an injectable hydrogel to induce repair Schwann cells in peripheral nerve injury using Sonic Hedgehog agonists. Over 500,000 cases of peripheral nerve injury are reported in the U.S. each year and only half of those patients achieve functional recovery, despite the range of surgical interventions. The project seeks to develop a hydrogel that promotes repair Schwann cells to enhance peripheral nerve regeneration as part of the surgical treatment. Colchado‘s project suggests the application of this treatment method would be most effective by precisely targeting the nerve to deliver a gradual, focused release of the bio-active factors in the area of injury.
Cory Berkland, PhD, of the McKelvey School of Engineering, the invited discussant, raised questions about the feasibility of applying this type of therapeutic. Colchado described the types of bedside devices needed and long-distance application of the proposed hydrogel. He emphasized that the described model in his presentation is not the final version to be used in a clinical setting, but something to be used to determine the parameters of the proposed hydrogel.
Panni’s presentation focused on his research in the impact of tumor-associated fibrosis on T-cell exhaustion and tumor control in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Despite immune checkpoint inhibitors and targeted therapies, the five-year survival rate is only around twenty percent, indicating a need for improved treatments. Using two models of lung adenocarcinoma, Panni demonstrated that high fibrosis correlates with higher tumor burden, while the absence of fibrosis allows successful chemoimmunotherapy treatment.
As invited discussant, Brett Herzog, MD, PhD, of the Division of Oncology provided his perspective on the limited observable benefit cancer patients experience upon the introduction of checkpoint blockade therapy. He concludes that understanding new ways to augment the immune system is necessary for the field of cancer care. His questions addressed the patient population who would most benefit from fibrosis being targeted and the potential of applying this method in the neoadjuvant setting, before primary treatment of a tumor. In response, Panni cited three recent trials, all of which focused on the perioperative and neoadjuvant setting, which he suggests would enable oncologists to identify the patients who would benefit from the proposed personalized therapies.
Winners
After much deliberation from judges and faculty and a close tally of votes, Tohmasi was selected as the winner for the category of Clinical, Outcomes, Innovation and Education Research. The winner for the category of Basic and Translational Research was Colchado.
“The poster and oral presentations were spectacular,” says Fields. “As always, the voting was extremely close. Drs. Thomasi, Sathe, Colchado, and Panni all did a stellar job presenting their work and fielding great questions from the discussants and the audience.”
Maxwell Braasch, MD, MPH, representing the research program of Mohamed Zayed, MD, PhD, was the winner of the poster competition. His research presented findings from his project – Novel Arterio-Venous Graft Supports Xenograft Islet Cell Survival in a Diabetic Porcine Model Without Immunosuppression.
Wells Resident Research Day exemplifies the institution’s commitment to promoting excellence in medical education and research. By encouraging residents to engage in meaningful research activities, the event contributes significantly to their professional development and helps in advancing the broader field of medical science.