Student/Mentee Faculty/Mentor Resident
Do you have permission from your mentor/PI to request medical student help?
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Who is the PI?
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Your Last Name
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Your First Name
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Email address
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Phone Number
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What is your current level of training?
MS1
MS2
MS3
MS4
When do you hope to start participating in research? (Month/Year)
To the right is a list of specialties. When you check off a specialty, you will be shown a list of research mentors in each of the respective areas. Please select any that you may be interested in working with (may select multiple).
Colorectal Surgery
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
Spencer Onishi, MD: Most, if not all of the research projects that I complete with residents and medical students are retrospective case series or case reports.
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
Joseph Desantis, MD: I do clinical research in Plastic Surgery. Usually this is a retrospective chart review. Some studies I have done or in process:
- A New Three Stage Approach for the Re-operative Hypospadias: The Role of Tissue Expansion in the Hypospadias Cripple
-Comparing the Surgical Outcomes of Prophylactic and Therapeutic Mastectomies with Immediate Reconstruction
- Comparison of Operative Time for Reduction Mammoplasty: Physician Assistant vs Resident First Assist
In the past, when a student expresses interest in Plastic Surgery Research, I see what projects in the department would be the most beneficial and assign the student or give them some options.
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.
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:
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
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.
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.
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
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.
Vascular Surgery
Evan Ryer, MD: Multiple projects involving arterial, venous, arteriovenous access, carotid, and aortic disease. Clinical projects and translational research / basic science options available.
Robert Garvin, MD: Dr. Garvin mainly performs retrospective clinic research, using for the most part data from our own Geisinger patients. Students should expect to be able to work with our own Geisinger research team members to answer clinical questions that arise during the course of normal everyday patient care in Vascular Surgery. Examples of recent publications include:
Green J, Ryer EJ, Borden N, Bilal A, Garvin RP , Yang A, Hashmi A, Salzler G, Elmore JR. Duplex Ultrasound Criteria for In-stent Stenosis of The Superior Mesenteric Artery. Annals of Vascular Surgery . 2021 Jan 25:S0890-5096(21)00077-7. Ryer EJ, Garvin RP , Kapadia RN, Jorgensen BD, et al. Outcome of rectus femoris muscle flaps performed by vascular surgeons for the management of complex groin wounds following femoral artery reconstructions. Journal of Vascular Surgery. March 2020; 71(3):905-11. Greg Salzler, MD: Multiple projects involving arterial, venous, arteriovenous access, carotid, and aortic disease. Clinical projects and translational research / basic science options available.
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.
Please describe in general terms the project or type of project you are seeking help with.
When do you hope to start working with the student (approximate timeline):now or anytime as well).
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Has the student been matched with a mentor?
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No
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Has the faculty been matched with a mentee?
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