Medical Student Research Matching Portal

Colorectal Surgery

 Rebecca Hoffman, MD MSCE: Dr. Hoffman's colorectal research interests include studying the genetics of diverticular disease, patient-reported outcomes in diverticular disease, and patient -reported outcomes in all areas of colorectal surgery. She is also interested in care coordination in colorectal cancer. (She is also cross-listed under the Education research group)

Minimally Invasive Surgery/Bariatrics

Alexandra Falvo, MD: I am involved with the MIS/Bariatric department research since I finished fellowship.  Most of our projects are outcomes research using large Geisinger and National databases.  We do have several students that work with us for data collection.  I would also be interested in doing case reports or video case reports -- we have been successful with these in recent years as well. She is primarly located at GWV. 

The team at GMC-Danville work together on projects, so any of the mentors below would be involved in a project 

Anthony Petrick, MD

David Parker, MD

Vladan Obradovic, MD

Ophthalmology

Pediatric Dentistry

Peter Jackson DMD: Any project would probably be related to 'space maintenance in the dental arch', growth patterns of children, growth hormone's effects on Class 3 mandibular growth etc.

Gayatri Malik DMD

Plastic Surgery

Sean Devitt, MD

Christian Kauffman, MD: I am interested in retrospective chart review or database research in plastic surgery topics like cleft lip and palate, craniosynostosis, breast reconstruction.  I am also starting to look into some ideas about plastic surgery match applicants and demographics around the match process. 

*Please click this link and complete if you are interested in pursuing plastic surgery research: 

https://redcap.geisinger.org/surveys/?s=HJAL4HY8ARWRLKEE

Surgical Oncology

Joseph Blansfield, MD:  Surgical oncology research is clinical outcomes research to improve cancer care to patients. Much of our research uses large national databases or local databases to explore quality measures in cancer care. Quality is a term that is used frequently in medicine and surgery. However, quality is difficult to fully define and even harder to measure. Our research looks at operative efficacy and appropriateness of cancer care as markers of quality. The goal of our research is to identify modifiable gaps in cancer care to allow for improvement in patient outcomes in the future.

Examples of recent publications include:

1. Fisher BW, Fluck M, Young K, Shabahang M, Blansfield J, Arora TK. Urgent surgery for gastric adenocarcinoma: A study of the National Cancer Database. J Surg Res 2020 Jan:245: 619-628. PMID: 31522035

1. Suraci C, Young K, Dove J, Shabahang M, Blansfield J. Predicting positive margins in pancreatic head adenocarcinoma after neoadjuvant therapy: Investigating disparities in quality care using the National Cancer Database. Ann Surg Oncol 2020 Aug online ahead of print. PMID 32856228.

1. Pesco J, Young K, Nealon K, Fluck M, Shabahang M, Blansfield J. Use and outcomes of epidural analgesia in upper gastrointestinal tract cancer resections. J Surg Res 2020 Sept online ahead of print PMID: 32892142.

1. Nuckles BW, Lam K, Young KA, Dove JT, Shabahang MM, Blansfield JA. Quality Improvement for Surgical Resection of Pancreatic Head Adenocarcinoma: Hospital and Surgeon Predictors of Higher Than Expected R1 Resection Using the National Cancer Database. American Surgeon. In Press. PubMed ID: 32993353.

Emergency General Surgery

Trauma Surgery & Surgical Critical Care

David Deisher, MD: In the past I have focused on QI/PI stuff.  My interests are in trauma systems utilization, emergency general surgery outcomes, and trauma resuscitation.  

Matthew Factor, MD: I mostly participate in trauma and emergency general surgery clinical outcomes research.  My most recent projects were AKI in retrorectus hernia repair, outcomes in retrorectus in Class III obesity, and Endoscopic Necrosectomy.  My current project is Futility in Tracheostomy.

Monty Littlejohn, MD: I am involved in Burn research with the Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma (EAST), and will be conducting Burn research in the very near future.  I will send you more info in the coming weeks, but currently working/collaborating on:

                Management of the trauma patient with burns – creating national guidelines

                Antibiotic use in burns

                Case presentation – presented on the national stage

                Literature reviews

1-2 residents are also interested in working on these projects, so we should have a good group with student involvement

Joseph Lopez, MD: I specialize in research involving our trauma, emergency general surgery, or surgical critical care patients. I have two projects just getting underway and would be delighted to have medical student assistance on. The first is a collaboration with Dr. Wilner of the Emergency Department looking at patients who are activated as simultaneous trauma and stroke alerts. The second is a collaboration with Dr. Schirmer of the Neurosurgery Department looking into utilizing NPi pupillometers to reduce the need for repeat CTs in traumatic brain injury patients.

I am also more than willing to listen to a student’s idea and help them develop it into a new study.

Nina Neuhaus, MD: EGS and Trauma, I like QI types of projects. Some things I’ve worked on in the past were outcomes of complicated appendicitis, transfer of TBI patients, and rural trauma development course. Right now I’m looking into PEG outcomes,  especially predictors of tube dislodging and will be helping with a pupilometer study. 

Megan Rapp, MD: 

My research interests are in acute care surgery (trauma, emergency general surgery and critical care) and surgical education.  I have projects nearing completion in the effect of the COVID pandemic on general surgery residency applications as well as how the change to two levels of care has affected our trauma outcomes.

Mary Jane Reed, MD

Urology

Brant Fulmer, MD: We are involved in the larger Pennsylvania Urology Regional Collaborative which is a group academic urologic practices in PA that focus on quality related care for urology patients. There are opportunities for involvement in several projects including opioid reduction, prostate biopsy optimization, and care standardization for prostate cancer patients. There are also individual research opportunities for interested students for involvement in ongoing faculty projects. There are also always opportunities to work with faculty in the production of case reports or help in preparing content for several online sources, Medscape/ Web MD, etc.

Surgical Education

Rebecca Hoffman, MD MSCE: Dr. Hoffman is interested in and is currently studying medical trainees intrinsic motivation for learning, as well an engagement in career. She is also interested in studying a a method of teaching. She has several education-related research project ideas waiting to be developed.

Pediatric Surgery

Alfred Kennedy, MD

Tara Loux

I have several ideas for projects, which can be tailored along the student's line of interest, including current quality improvement initiatives, clinical chart review projects, adherence to guidelines, etc.  Topics can include prevention of neonatal surgical site infections, various topics in pediatric trauma, pediatric biliary dyskinesia and utility of HIDA or CCK-HIDA scans in diagnosis, prevention of surgical site infection in patients with appendicitis, use of intraoperative culture data in patients with perforated appendicitis.  And so many more ideas!  I am happy to work with a student OR resident. 

When do you hope to start working with the student (approximate timeline):

(You may enter now or anytime as well).

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Has the student been matched with a mentor?

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Comment: (With Whom, When, or why not?)

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Has the faculty been matched with a mentee?

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