Tasce Bongiovanni, MD Awarded LHS K12 Career Development Grant and Named 2019 John A. Watson Scholar
Tasce Bongiovanni, M.D., MPP, MHS, a second-year trauma and surgical critical care fellow at ZSFG in trauma and emergency surgery and soon to be USCF faculty member, has been awarded a Learning Health Systems (LHS) K12 Career Development Grant and named to the Class of 2019 John A. Watson Faculty Scholars. Dr. Bongiovanni is a previous graduate of the UCSF General Surgery Residency Program
On August 1, Dr. Bongiovanni will begin her appointment as assistant professor in the Division of General Surgery. She will be joining the acute care surgery service at UCSF Parnassus, staffing the surgical ICU as a surgical critical care intensivist while taking trauma call at ZSFG.
Dr. Bongiovanni's mentors and faculty instrumental in her career development award include: from the Department of Surgery, Elizabeth C. Wick, M.D., Hobart W. Harris, M.D., M.P.H., Emily Finlayson, M.D., M.S. and the Department Chair, Julie Ann Sosa, M.D., M.A., FACS; and two professors of Medicine, Andrew Auerbach, MD and Niraj Sehgal, MD, MPH.
After a highly productive career as a surgical trainee, Dr. Bongiovanni ascends to the faculty as a young surgeon-scientist with two highly coveted and prestigious awards.
Learning Health Systems (LHS) K12 Grant
The Learning Health Systems (LHS) K12 Selection Committee selected Dr. Bongiovanni to receive a K12 Scholar Award and to participate in the UCSF K Scholars Program. She was among the top ranked candidates in a very competitive field.
The Learning Health System (LHS) K12 is a new K12 program to support the career development of scientists at UCSF and affiliates who conduct patient-centered outcomes research (PCOR) within learning health systems in order to help accelerate the translation of research and evidence into practice. In a LHS, knowledge generation is embedded in the daily practice of health care delivery, and serves to catalyze continuous improvement to enhance patient well-being and health outcomes. The program is supported by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics and CTSI.
Dr. Bongiovanni's research will focus on developing strategies to decrease opioid exposure in treating post-operative pain. It will have a direct, population-level impact by informing interventions aimed at providing adequate post-operative analgesia with non-opioid medications in order to reduce opioid abuse and associated morbidity and mortality and inform further hospital-wide measures to develop a continuum of care for patients regarding holistic pain control in the perioperative setting.
Very excited for a young surgeon scientist - @TasceB - to be in the inaugural cohort of scholars! @UCSFSurgery @UCSF @SurgOutcomes @AcademicSurgery @EAST_TRAUMA @UCSFMSS https://t.co/wzEEIFbC9i
— Julie A Sosa (@Jasosamd) May 16, 2019
John A. Watson Faculty Scholar
Dr. Bongiovanni was also recently named a 2019 John A. Watson Faculty Scholar and a recipient of the UCSF School of Medicine Dean's Diversity Funds Award. Her selection for the honor, along with six additional faculty members in other departments, was announced by the School of Medicine Dean Talmadge E. King, Jr., MD.
The Dean’s Diversity Fund was established to support the recruitment and retention of faculty who share the university’s commitment to diversity and the institution's responsibility to care for underserved and vulnerable populations. The awards are named after John A. Watson, PhD, a pioneer for diversity, an inspiring mentor, and a tenacious scientist whose service to the UCSF School of Medicine spanned forty-six years. 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.