Shared Content Block:
Surgery Styles -- directory
In addition to the five years of clinical general surgery training, categorical residents are expected to spend two to three years as a resident in research/academics. Most spend two years in research or academics. Opportunities for clinical as well as basic-science research abound. Several of our residents have completed master's degrees during the two research years. Occasionally residents spend three years in order to satisfy the requirements for a Ph.D.
Residents are also encouraged to participate in various clinical research projects in collaboration with the faculty. Diverse research opportunities are available to individuals seeking careers in academic surgery. Most surgical residents spend a two-year research fellowship working with established surgical faculty investigators. Those entering the program with a Ph.D. are given the opportunity to set up an individualized curriculum. Residents pursue research spanning the full range of investigation from basic science to translational investigations, and clinical and outcomes-based research.
I work with multiple mentors, focusing on surgical outcomes research around violence prevention, access to care, healthcare inequalities, vulnerable populations and geriatrics/frailty. I work with Dr. Robinson at the VA, with research focusing on characterizing underlying fitness and activity levels prior to and following surgical operations. I also work with Dr. Velopulos, with research on the social determinants of health as they pertain to surgical outcomes and healthcare inequalities, violence prevention with a focus on intimate partner violence, as well as use of geographic information systems (GIS) in exploring access and quality issues. I also do some outcomes and access research with the UCH Burn unit. Finally, I'm very interested in Surgical Education and am involved in work with the medical school curricular reform and the 1st year anatomy course.
I work in Dr. Ernest "Gene" Moore's trauma research lab, composed of an interdisciplinary team that studies trauma-induced coagulopathy. Within this topic, i have developed an interest in sex dimorphisms in coagulation and how this may confer differential resuscitation strategies and clinical outcomes in trauma. This has led to several clinical projects focused on coagulation profiles of sex hormone-specific states and differential coagulation-related outcomes in trauma and basic science projects focused on the effects of sex hormones on coagulation in vitro. I recently received a $35,000 grant from the Foundation for Women and Girls with Bleeding Disorders to support this work. In addition to this work, I have conducted basic science research projects to better understand mediators of fibrinolytic shutdown and to characterize thrombin generation in trauma patients.
I work with Dr. Trevor Nydam and the Transplant Surgery Research Group. Our research group has several active clinical and transplantation projects related to the study of coagulopathy and transplantation and quality improvement metrics surrounding the transplantation process. In addition to working on these projects, I am also helping to evaluate and potentially implement an uncontrolled donation after cardiac death program. This includes working on feasibility studies in conjunction with surgeons, medical specialists and hospital administrators.
I am supported by the Laboratory for Fetal and Regenerative Biology (Dr. Ken Liechty) as well as the pediatric surgery division (Dr. Thomas Inge). I split my time between basic science and clinical outcome projects. In my basic science work, I have focused on the role of macrophage polarization in wound healing. We are also testing applications for an anti-inflammatory nanoparticles in various models including wound healing and inflammatory bowel disease. In my clinical outcomes work, I have focused on patient centered outcomes after adolescent bariatric surgery using a prospective, national database.
I am working with the UCH Trauma Department under Dr. Frank Wright, the UCH Plastics and Reconstructive Surgery Department under Dr. Matt Iorio, and with Surgical Quality Improvement under Dr. Ethan Cumbler. I am specifically working on validating scoring systems to activate MTP in the pre-hospital setting, extremity reconstruction clinical outcomes, and hospital wide quality improvement initiatives. I am also participating in several training programs on campus including the Hospitalist Training Program and the Certificate Training Program with the Institute for Healthcare Quality, Safety and Efficiency.
I am currently working with Dr. Steven Abman, a pediatric pulmonologist interested in bronchopulmonary dysplasia. My research is currently focused on developing ways to improve and/or prevent lung disease in neonates through different types of drug administration. This includes working with primary cell culture and small animal models to determine what mechanisms are involved in the development and prevention of neonatal pulmonary disease.
I work with Dr. Michael Weyant in the Cardiothoracic Surgery Lab which is a basic science lab. Pat Kohtz is my co-resident and we collaborate on some projects but also work independently. I work with lung and esophageal cancer cell lines to determine cell signaling pathways that influence cancer cell growth. We also have a mouse model and I will perform in vivo studies looking at a cell signaling pathway inhibitor and its effect on lung cancer tumor growth this coming year.
In addition to our basic science projects, we also perform clinical projects in the area of Thoracic Surgery. We have just completed a review of outcomes in lung transplant for patients with Interstitial Lung Disease and we are also looking at factors effecting oncologic outcomes for esophagectomy using the NCDB with Dr. Gleisner in Surgical Oncology. Dr. Weyant is also one of the national PIs on a study which examines the outcomes for patients who have received an Ex-Vivo lung transplant (where marginal lungs are placed on an Ex Vivo machine and monitored for their ability to ventilate- this technique could improve the numbers of lungs available for transplantation). My personal interests include Thoracic Surgery and Surgical Oncology.
I work with Dr. Liechty in the Laboratory for Fetal and Regenerative Biology. I work on both basic science and clinical projects in areas including diabetic wounds, pediatric and fetal surgery. Some of my projects include 3D printing for fetal repair of myelomeningocele, outcomes in congenital diaphragmatic hernia, and applications for nanoparticles in wound healing.
There are two main focuses in the aortic surgery research lab. Our basic science research revolves around protection of the spinal cord from ischemia reperfusion injury which can occur during complex thoracoabdominal aortic repairs and lead to paraplegia. This work includes neuron cell culture, a mouse model of spinal cord ischemia and more recently a pig model to evaluate techniques of augmenting collateral circulation to the spinal cord. In addition, as the aortic program has continued to grow, we have started a database looking at outcomes and interventions in aortic surgery that are paving the way for advancement of treatment of aortic disease.
My research areas are basic oncology/tumor immunology research as well as clinical outcomes research in oncology. My basic science research is focused on elucidating the function of a novel G-protein coupled receptor that may play an important role in tumor angiogenesis and metastasis. Concurrently, I am doing several clinical projects using the National Cancer Database and multiple University of Colorado surgical oncology databases. I am pursing a PhD in Clinical Science while I am in the lab.
My research is focused in surgical outcomes and quality improvement, primarily in surgical oncology and colorectal surgery. At University Hospital, I have helped develop a pancreatic database and have performed multiple retrospective chart reviews at our institution. I also work with the Surgical Outcomes and Applied Research (SOAR) using large national databases including the National Cancer Database and ACS-NSQIP. In addition, I am getting my Masters in Clinical Science at the University of Colorado Denver to learn biostatistics.
My research in the trauma lab involves clinical outcomes studies utilizing the extensive Denver Trauma Activations Protocol (TAP) database and translational basic science studies, primarily in rat and whole blood models, designed to validate the hypotheses generated in my clinical investigations. So far the highlights of my research have included validating thresholds for a thromboelastogram (TEG) driven massive transfusion protocol, which is now in use at Denver Health and developing a novel hypothesis for the cellular signaling responsible for post-traumatic hyperfibrinolysis, which I will be testing in animal models over the coming year.
My research time is focused on completing clinical research in the areas of breast surgery, plastic and reconstructive surgery, and trauma surgery. Additionally, I am developing and executing a curriculum and a large scale project in quality improvement through the CU School of Medicine Institute for Quality, Safety & Efficiency (HQSE).
I am doing basic research with Dr. Weyant with both esophageal and lung cancer cell lines. We are evaluating the different genetic, inflammatory proteins and immune system components essential to these cancerous cell lines growth and proliferation. My clinical research projects include a VA ECMO outcomes and ex vivo lung transplant outcomes.
Lab | Specialty | Current Resident/Lab Alumni |
Dr. Abman | Pediatrics | Christina Kim Bradley Wallace |
Dr. Cohen | Trauma | Jamie Hadley |
Dr. Fullerton | CT Surgery | Michael Jarrett |
Dr. Kovacs | Burn, Alcohol Research | John Frankel |
Dr. Liechty | Pediatric Surgery | Amanda Louiselle Lindel Dewberry Sarah Hilton Maggie Hodges |
Dr. Meguid | CT Surgery | Abhinav Singh |
Dr. Moore | Trauma | Navin Vigneshwar Matthew Bartley Julia Coleman Geoffrey Nunns Jason Samuels Gregory Stettler Peter Einersen Anthony Bacon Hunter Moore |
Dr. Nehler | Vascular/CPC | Nicholas Govsyeyev |
Dr. Nydam | Transplant | Rashikh Choudhury |
Dr. Reece | CT Surgery | Christian Ghincea Mohamed Eldeiry |
Dr. Schroeppel | Trauma | Joshua Billings Eliza Moskowitz |
Dr. Schulick | Surgical Oncology | Felix Ho Robert Torphy |
Dr. Tevis | Breast/QI | Victoria Huynh |
Drs Wright/Iorio/Robinson | QI/Plastics/VA Grant | Alexandra Kovar |
Dr. Velopulos/ Robinson | Surgical QI, Outcomes/Education | Heather Carmichael |
Dr. Weyant | Thoracic Surgery | Anna Gergen Allana White Alison Halpern Patrick Kohtz Kweku Hazel |
Steven Abman (Steven.Abman@cuanschutz.edu)
Anirban Banerjee (Anirban.Banerjee@cuanschutz.edu)
Mitchell Cohen (Mitchell.Cohen@dhha.org)
Marco del Chiaro (Marco.delChiaro@cuanschutz.edu)
David Fullerton (David.Fullerton@cuanschutz.edu)
Ronald Gill (Ronald.Gill@cuanschutz.edu)
Bryan Haugen (Bryan.Haugen@CUAnschutz.edu)
Christene Huang (Christene.Huang@CUAnschutz.edu)
Juan-Pablo Idrovo (Juan.Idrovo@cuanschutz.edu)
Thomas Inge (Thomas.Inge@childrenscolorado.org)
Kshama Jaiswal (Kshama.Jaiswal@dhha.org)
Teresa Jones (Teresa.Jones@VA.gov)
Elizabeth Kovacs (Elizabeth.Kovacs@cuanschutz.edu)
Kenneth Liechty (Kenneth.Liechty@childrenscolorado.org )
Martin McCarter (Martin.McCarter@cuanschutz.edu)
Robert Meguid (Robert.Meguid@cuanschutz.edu)
Ernest “Gene” Moore (Ernest.Moore@dhha.org)
Trevor Nydam (Trevor.Nydam@cuanschutz.edu)
Brett Reece (Brett.Reece@cuanschutz.edu)
Thomas Schroeppel (Thomas.Schroeppel@uchealth.org)
Richard Schulick (Richard.Schulick@cuanschutz.edu)
Catherine Velopulos (Catherine.Velopulos@cuanschutz.edu )
Michael Weyant (Michael.Weyant@cuanschutz.edu)
Yuwen Zhu (Yuwen.Zhu@cuanschutz.edu)
Dr. David Fullerton serves as Vice Chair of Surgical Research for the Department of Surgery.
Two- to three-year specialized public health graduate degree program including capstone project and studies within statistics, epidemiology, environmental health, policy, and behavioral sciences. Website
Contact: Admissions@CSPH@ucdenver.edu or 303-724-4613
CU Residents who have completed this program:
One- to three-year translational research graduate degree program including thesis and studies within statistics, clinical epidemiology, and health outcomes. Website
Contact: Lisa Cicutto (program director) / Galtin Mankin (program coordinator)
CU Residents who have completed the MSCS program:
CU Residents who have completed the PhD program: