Surgery Research Retreat to Convene May 4 & 5

Faculty members from Stanford’s Department of Surgery will come together for a two-day retreat focused on research in May.

“At the end of these two days, I hope to understand how we can leverage the resources at Stanford and make strategic departmental investments to make us a leading Department of Surgery in research,” said Department of Surgery Chair Dr. Mary Hawn. “We are specifically including all areas of scholarship, from basic science to educational research.”

Each faculty member has been assigned to one of six separate subcommittees: basic and translational research, dry lab research (health services policy), clinical trials, technology and innovation, education, and international/global health.

“Each committee is expected to do pre-retreat work, tasked with specific questions that have been given to them and then report out in a 15min presentation,” said Vice Chair of Basic Research Dr. Geoffrey Gurtner. “Combined, these presentations will provide a roadmap for research in the Department of Surgery for the next 15 years.”

The retreat will also include presentations from “major players outside the Department of Surgery,” said Gurtner.

Guest speakers will include Stanford Center for Clinical Research Director Dr. Ken Mahaffey, Spectrum Director Dr. Mark Cullen, Center for Biomedical Informatics Research Assistant Director Dr. Nigam Shah, and Chief of the Division of Pain Medicine Dr. Sean Mackey.  

“Speakers were invited based on their leadership, knowledge, and development of resources that Department of Surgery faculty could use to advance our individual and collaborative academic agendas,” said Vice Chair of Clinical Research Dr. Arden Morris. “Stanford School of Medicine resources are mindboggling, but hardworking faculty may feel pressured by competing missions and by limited time or access.”

Morris says “getting the word out about resources and how others are using them” is a major goal for day one of the retreat.

“We want to foster dialogue in a setting where literally everyone present has a voice and enable faculty to generate ideas and momentum for their academic missions,” said Morris.

This is the third retreat in a series focused on the three parts of the Department’s mission. Previous retreats focused on education (2016) and quality of patient care (2017). Numerous successes have resulted from both of the previous events.

“Because of the education retreat, we started the monthly Departmental M&M conference and have engaged more deeply with the Medical Student Surgical Interest Group,” said Hawn. “We also crafted the position for Vice Chair of Education and launched a national search.”

Dr. James Korndorffer inaugurated the Vice Chair of Education position in December 2017.

“At the Quality Retreat, we created the Quality Council and asked each division/section to come up with a quality initiative,” said Hawn. “The expansion of the ERAS program to HPB has led to decreased length of stay and the Division of Abdominal Transplantation doubled their volumes in one year with improved outcomes.”

Morris and Gurtner will present the outcomes of the retreat at the Department of Surgery’s Quarterly Meeting on Tuesday, May 22 at 7:00AM in LKSC 130.