Department of Surgery News

Muriel Steele Society's own co-chair, Dr. Lucy Kornblith, was nominated and selected as one of the Association of Women Surgeons Top 40 Under 40! This award recognizes outstanding women surgeons who are trailblazers in their field or who are making a significant impact with their actions. Congratulations, Dr. Kornblith!

A new UC San Francisco study sheds light on the diversity within the most common type of pediatric liver tumor and suggests a way forward for more precise chemotherapy treatment. The study, publishing in Nature Communications on August 25, used single-cell transcriptomic techniques to analyze hepatoblastoma specimens from infants and children under age four. From nine samples, the researchers identified five hepatoblastoma tumor signatures that may account for the heterogeneity in this cancer, and that may predict responses to chemotherapy treatments.

Congratulations to Dr. Adnan Alesidi who has been selected as a new member of The Haile T. Debas Academy of Medical Educators. He will be inducted into the distinguished Academy on September 21, 2022 at the Sandler Neurosciences Center Auditorium.

The Muriel Steele Society congratulates Dr. Ashley Campbell, one of the General Surgery categorical interns, on her Dr. Patricia Numann Medical Student Award from the Association of Women Surgeons. The mission of the Patricia Numann Medical Student Award is to encourage and support an outstanding female medical student who is pursuing a career in surgery and recipients have demonstrated leadership potential or made significant contributions to surgery.   Dr. Campbell graduated from the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine in June 2022. She has extensive global health [...]

Featured Video: "Day in the Life of a UCSF heart surgeon: Dr. Tom Nguyen"Follow along on a typical day with UCSF Medical Center cardiac surgeon Dr. Tom Nguyen who is the chief of the Division of Adult Cardiothoracic Surgery, UCSF Department of Surgery. To learn more about Dr. Nguyen on UCSFHealth, visit: https://www.ucsfhealth.org/providers/dr-tom-nguyenTo read Dr. Nguyen's bio on the Department of Surgery, click here.

Innovation Means Shorter Hospital Stays, Fewer Complications Cardiothoracic surgeons at UC San Francisco have performed the first robotically assisted mitral value surgery in San Francisco. The surgery was recently performed on a 63-year-old patient who had mitral valve prolapse. Mitral valve surgery is performed when the heart's mitral valve needs to be repaired. Traditionally, mitral valve surgery required opening the chest and putting the patient on heart-lung bypass to keep blood circulating during surgery. Since 2016, UCSF surgeons have been performing minimally invasive mitral valve [...]

Amy G. Fiedler, M.D., will be joining our faculty as a Cardiac Surgeon and Assistant Professor of Clinical Surgery in the Department of Surgery. Dr. Fiedler comes to UCSF from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where her clinical practice is focused in heart failure and transplantation and mechanical circulatory support. Dr. Fielder is a graduate of Georgetown University, where she received both her Bachelor of Science in Biology and her Master's degree in Microbiology and Immunology. For medical school, Dr. Fiedler attended The George Washington University and completed both her general [...]

The UCSF Center for Health Equity in Surgery and Anesthesia (CHESA), in collaboration with the ZSFG Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Department and the Collaborative for Surgical Health Outcomes, Research, and Equity (C-SHORE), is seeking proposals for research, education, or policy projects that address any aspect of health equity related to surgery, anesthesia, nursing, and perioperative care for domestic populations. This year's theme is "Perioperative Health Disparities in the Bay Area." This call for proposals seeks to support innovative strategies that reduce health disparities in the [...]

Dr. Jason Smith, a native of San Francisco, has joined our department as a Professor of Clinical Surgery and as the Surgical Director of Heart Failure and Mechanical Circulatory Support. He is a cardiac surgeon with experience in ischemic and valvular heart disease, complex aortic surgery, endocarditis, and complex re-operative surgery. His primary career focus is on the surgical management of heart failure, cardiac transplant, and mechanical circulatory support.  In heart transplantation, Dr. Smith has been involved in increasing access to heart transplants through improving donor [...]

On Wednesday, April 13th, Dr. Kukreja and her team conducted our 1000th lung transplant. This is an enormous milestone and congratulations to Dr. Jasleen Kukreja and her team, the UCSF Lung Transplant program, and the UCSF Division of Adult Cardiothoracic Surgery. Their relentless dedication, selfless contributions and unmatched patient care are only a few reasons that contribute to the achievement of this milestone. About the UCSF Lung Transplant Program The UCSF Lung Transplant Program is a true multi-disciplinary collaboration that includes surgeons, pulmonologists, nurses, pharmacists, [...]

The UCSF Lung Transplant Program provides comprehensive care for patients before and after lung transplantation. Since our founding in 1991, we have given more than 700 patients with advanced lung disease the chance at a longer, more active life. We perform about 50 transplants each year. Our program has established a reputation for accepting challenging, complex cases. Despite this, the survival rate for adults who receive a lung transplant at UCSF consistently exceeds the national average, according to the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients (SRTR). Outcomes data is available [...]

REMINDER,Our Haile T. Debas Diversity Scholarship application is NOW open. Created to build diversity, equity, inclusionand belonging in surgery. It provides a stipend of $2,500, towards expenses.Apply: http://ow.ly/2pap50I7ov7

The first beating heart mitral valve repair on the West Coast was performed by Tom C. Nguyen, MD, chief of UC San Francisco's Division of Adult Cardiothoracic Surgery, and his surgical team in September 2021. The HARPOON™ Beating Heart Mitral Valve Repair System was used for the procedure as part of the RESTORE clinical trial. Case study: patient with severe mitral regurgitation  In July 2021, a 60-year-old man suffering from severe mitral regurgitation (MR) with mitral valve prolapse and a ruptured chord was referred to the UCSF Heart and Vascular Center. The patient had a history of new [...]

Tobias Deuse, M.D. and Sonja Schrepfer, M.D., Ph.D., were awarded the UH3 Supplement Grant worth $260,009 to continue their work on how spaceflight changes the immune system and stem cell niche. To better understand the relevance of the astronauts' experience to human health — both on the ground and beyond — NIH's National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) partnered with the International Space Station U.S. National Laboratory (ISS National Lab) to send tissue chips, a research technology that reflects the human body, into space. The ISS National Lab and NASA partnered to [...]

Melissa H. Coleman, MD, was the one of the eight recipients of the John A. Watson Faculty Scholar, the Dean's Diversity Fund. This diversity grant is named after John A. Watson, PhD, a pioneer for diversity, an inspiring mentor, and a tenacious scientist. During his tenure as dean of admissions in the 1970s, he rapidly increased the number of women and minority students in the entering medical school classes.  Dr. Coleman is an assistant professor of surgery and the associate program director of the UCSF Thoracic Surgery Residency Program. She is committed to fostering a culture of [...]

The annual Association For Surgical Education (ASE) meeting took place from April 29th – May 1st. 2021, and throughout the three days, several research presentations were presented. 14 of those presentations were given by our team members, and we couldn't have been prouder. Below are the topics of the presentations and every person who was involved in each. At UCSF, we are deeply committed to Surgical Education and wanted to highlight all who've given their time to intense research and making sure we continue to move forward. Thank you!   PP64: THIRD-YEAR MEDICAL STUDENT PERCEIVED KNOWLEDGE [...]

We are thrilled to announce that on April 30th, 2021, Adnan Alseidi, M.D., Ed.M was formally inducted as the next President of The Association for Surgical Education during the ASE annual meeting. ASE is the global leader for surgical education across the continuum of education from medical students, residents, fellows, faculty development, and simulation. Dr. Alseidi has spoken about his recent appointment and is working on a considerable number of initiatives to be released over the next couple of years. These multiple avenues include Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, educator [...]

We are pleased to announce that Amar Nijagal, MD has been selected for the AASLD CTORA Award (American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases Foundation) for his proposal & work focused on hepatoblastoma. The award provides Dr. Nijagal with $200K of funding for 2 years and is intended to fund his research project entitled "Defining the role of tumor associated myeloid cells in pediatric hepatoblastoma." This is a vital stepping stone for his lab & continuing science. For more information on the ASSLD CTORA Award, please visit http://www.aasldfoundation.org/ 

The UCSF Department of Surgery held the 34th Annual J. Engelbert Dunphy Resident Research Symposium on Wednesday, April 14, 2021. The program honors the life and accomplishments of J. Engelbert Dunphy, M.D., a legendary surgeon and former chair of the UCSF Department of Surgery, by showcasing the scholarly work of residents, fellows, and medical students in the Department of Surgery. This year's virtual symposium featured one plenary session and three concurrent sessions, where over 40 learners had the opportunity to present their work. Jayme Locke, M.D., MPH, Professor of Surgery and the [...]

The UCSF Department of Surgery is pleased to host the 34th annual J. Engelbert Dunphy Resident Research Symposium, to be held virtually on Wednesday, April 14, 2021, beginning at 7:00am PDT. The program will showcase the research of residents, fellows, and medical students in the Department of Surgery, and honors the life and accomplishments of J. Engelbert Dunphy, M.D., a legendary surgeon and former chair of the UCSF Department of Surgery. The symposium will feature the 2021 Dunphy Professor Jayme Locke, M.D., MPH, who will present the Keynote Lecture, "Surgery, Science & Advocacy: [...]