News & Events

Laura J. Esserman, MD, MBA has been awarded a $760K FDA Grant through the UCSF-Stanford Center of Excellence in Regulatory Science and Innovation (CERSI). CERSI is a joint undertaking among the UCSF School of Pharmacy and School of Medicine, the Stanford University School of Engineering and School of Medicine and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the first regulatory science and innovation center on the West Coast. The grant funds Phase 2 of the "OneSource" Project, which is designed to address regulatory challenges of information systems relating to clinical research given the [...]

Original Investigation Association of Demographic and Program Factors With ABS Qualifying and Certifying Examinations Pass RatesJAMA Surg. Published online October 16, 2019.Heather L. Yeo, MD, MHS, MBA, MS; Patrick T. Dolan, MD, MS; Jialin Mao, MD, MS; Julie A. Sosa, MD, MARead Abstract Key Points Question  Is there an association between sociodemographic factors and American Board of Surgery board examination passage rates? Findings  In this study of 662 individuals, trainees of Hispanic ethnicity were more likely to not attempt either of the board examinations (qualifying and [...]

 M. Margaret "Peggy" Knudson, M.D., FACS gave the Scudder Oration on Trauma at American College of Surgeons (ACS) Clinical Congress 2019: "The Perfect Storm - The Importance of Military Civilian Partnerships." Honoring Charles Locke Scudder, MD, a founding member of the American College of Surgeons (ACS) and a major contributor to the surgery of trauma, the annual Scudder Oration is one of only a handful of named lectures given annually at the ACS Clinical Congress. The Scudder Orator—who is chosen from a select few nominated for the award—delivers the address and is invited to publish [...]

UCSF surgeon-scientist Lucy Zumwinkle Kornblith, MD is a co-investigator on a newly awarded $2M Department of Defense Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program in collaboration with the UCSF Department of Laboratory Medicine, and OHSU Division of Trauma, Critical Care, and Acute Care Surgery, for the study of "Freeze Dried Platelet Extracellular Vesicles as a Hemostatic Adjunct to Resuscitation for Prolonged Field Care." The DOD/CDMRP funded study is a multicenter, multi-investigator grant with primary investigators Dr. Shibani Pati (Department of Lab Medicine, UCSF) and Dr. [...]

UCSF surgeon-scientist Rita Mukhtar, M.D., Assistant Professor of Surgery in the Division of General Surgery, has been awarded two grants to study  lobular breast cancer. This work is also being crowd-funded by one of Dr. Mukhtar's patients through a novel mechanism offered by the UCSF Foundation, "Together at UCSF."  Dr. Mukhtar's clinical and translational research program focuses on invasive lobular carcinoma, the second most common type of breast cancer, and an understudied disease with unique treatment challenges.  The Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center awarded Dr. Mukhtar [...]

New artificial intelligence-powered technology may soon help reduce delays in diagnosing a collapsed lung, or pneumothorax, which is a serious condition that can be treated with quick intervention. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved a new artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm that works with portable X-rays to rapidly screen for collapsed lung. The technology was developed by GE Healthcare and UC San Francisco researchers. Pneumothorax occurs when air leaks into the chest cavity, compressing the lungs and causing a partial or complete collapse. Tens of thousands of [...]

We are pleased to announce that Andre Campbell, M.D. has been named the Inaugural Vice Chair for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) in the Department of Surgery. Dr. Campbell is a Professor of Surgery in the Division of General Surgery and an attending trauma surgeon at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center (ZSFG). As Vice Chair for DEI, Dr. Campbell will provide vision and leadership for diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives across the department's clinical, research and training enterprise. He will partner with the Department's Vice Chair for Faculty [...]

Matthew Y.C. Lin, M.D. has been named the UCSF Surgery Clerkship Director, starting January 2, 2020. Dr. Lin is an Associate Professor of Surgery in the Division of General Surgery. In his clinical practice, he cares for patients with conditions of obesity, gallbladder, intestines, stomach, and complex hernias. Dr. Lin is also a member of the acute care surgical service at the Parnassus campus. Dr. Lin received his medical degree at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, followed by a general surgery residency at Harbor – UCLA Medical Center. He then completed a fellowship in minimally [...]

The UCSF Howard C. Naffziger Surgical Society, the alumni society for graduates of the the UCSF General Surgery Residency and Plastic Surgery Residency Programs, met on September 27, 2019 for Naffziger Surgical Society Day, which brings together multiple generations of UCSF surgeons including former chief residents, surgeons in academic medicine, those with community practices, and retired surgeons. The symposium generates substantive discussion of the history and future of surgical training and practice, while celebrating the common lineage of graduates of the UCSF Department of [...]

Dr. Laura Esserman is on a mission to bring the blockchain to health care. I can already hear the audible groans and see the general eye-rolling—I get it. There have been plenty of bold claims when it comes to blockchain, the decentralized ledger technology, in pretty much every sector from food to medicine. So far, the sizzle to steak ratio has been out of whack, and skepticism is integral to good science. But Esserman, a renowned surgeon and director of the UCSF Carol Franc Buck Breast Care Center, believes blockchain can slash the cost of cancer drug development while spurring new [...]

Caitlin Collins, MD, MPH, a general surgery resident at UCSF, received an Excellence in Research Award from the Scientific Forum Committee of the American College of Surgeons (ACS) in the category of Colon and Rectal Surgery. The award was for her abstract, "Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services Bundled Payment for Care Improvement- Advanced for Major Bowel Surgery: Do We Have the Tools We Need to Succeed?", which was also selected as an oral presentation at the 2019 Owen H. Wangensteen Scientific Forum program. Dr. Collins received her honor at a formal awards ceremony on October [...]

The Department of Surgery warmly welcomes our new clinical fellows for the 2019-20 academic year, a diverse group of surgeons bringing a rich array of experiences from leading institutions.  Abdominal Transplant Surgery Carrie Thiessen, M.D., Ph.D. Clinical Fellow (PGY-6)Abdominal Transplant Surgery Steven Wisel, M.D., B.S. Clinical Fellow (PGY-6)Abdominal Transplant Surgery Advanced GI/MIS/Bariatrics Kiavash R. Koko, M.D. Clinical Fellow (PGY-6)Advanced [...]

Behind any landmark cure is years of medical research. But the old goal of research — to find a one-size-fits-all treatment for a disease, based on a set of standard protocols — must radically change to further and diversify advances in the field, experts argued at the TIME 100 Health Summit on Thursday. "We're all in it, at the end of the day, for our patients," said Dr. Laura Esserman, professor of surgery at the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine. "We want to get people to a better outcome." In the field of breast cancer, for example, the same cancer screening and [...]

"In modern surgery, it's a rare event to die from surgery," says Dr. Emily Finlayson, director of the University of California San Francisco's Center for Surgery in Older Adults. "The risk comes from being able to recover." ......Fragility, cognition, mobility, depression, how much support how someone has at home — those are all also factors to be considered. These are mostly non-traditional factors, and in particular, "fragility is an emerging concept that goes beyond chronological age. You can be eighty and really fit, or you can be fifty-five and have a lot of physical function issues and [...]

The Department of Surgery is pleased to announce that Elizabeth C. Wick, M.D. and Jason H. Pomerantz, M.D. have been appointed Co-Chairs of the Department of Surgery Research Committee. Dr. Wick is a professor of surgery in the Section of Colorectal Surgery. She is an experienced laparoscopic surgeon, treating the entire spectrum of colorectal conditions including diverticular disease, inflammatory bowel disease, colon and rectal cancer, anal cancer, and perianal disease with a patient-‐centered approach. Dr. Wick has contributed to the understanding of almost every aspect of perioperative [...]

Hueylan Chern, M.D., an associate professor in the Section of Colorectal Surgery, has been named the new Director of the UCSF Surgical Skills Center. The UCSF Surgical Skills Center is accredited by the American College of Surgeons, and it is one of the crown jewels of the Department's teaching enterprise. It provides simulation based longitudinal and structured curricula, enabling learners to master both basic and advanced operative techniques. The lab also supports educational scholarship in teaching, curricular development, and research as a pathway to an academic career in surgical [...]

Lucy Kornblith, M.D., Assistant Professor of Surgery in the UCSF Department of Surgery at ZSFG, is the 2019 recipient of The Irene Perstein Award for 2019, awarded by the UCSF School of Medicine to an outstanding, newly recruited, junior woman scientist. This unique award honors the legacy of Ms. Irene Perstein, who donated funds to support junior women faculty at UCSF. The highly competitive award is based on criteria including the novelty and innovation of the science, and the potential impact on human health. This award supports Dr. Kornblith's expansion of her investigations to include [...]

James M. Gardner, M.D., Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Surgery in the Division of Transplant Surgery, has been awarded an appointment to the prestigious Physician-Scientist Scholar Program (PSSP), part of the UCSF Sandler Fellows Program. All of the Departments in the University are invited to nominate candidates who compete for the award, only one of which is given per year. Dr. Gardner was nominated by Chris E. Freise, M.D. and Julie Ann Sosa, MD, MA, FACS, and is the first surgeon to receive this award. The appointment provides $1.25M in direct research funding over five years. The [...]

Yvonne Kelly, MD has been awarded the prestigious Jon Fryer Resident Scientist Scholarship by the American Society of Transplant Surgeons (ASTS) for 2019-2020. The award was presented at the 2019 American Transplant Congress earlier this month in Boston, Massachusetts. The scholarship is supported by the ASTS Foundation in order to foster innovation and research in the fields of transplantation and transplant immunobiology.   Dr. Kelly is a fourth year general surgery resident at UCSF currently in her first of two professional development years. She is completing her research fellowship in [...]

Hobart W. Harris, M.D., M.P.H., professor and chief of the Division of General Surgery, Hobart W. Harris, MD, MPH, was inducted into the Gold-Headed Cane Society as an Honorary Member for 2019. The ceremony took place on May 20th. Dr. Harris was on one of two UCSF faculty to receive the award this year. The original gold-headed cane has long been a symbol in English medicine. Dr. Andre Campbell of the Department of Surgery presented the award.   Honored to be able to present Dr Hobart Harris on his induction into the Gold Headed Cane Society! Congratulations to Dr Margo Vener &the [...]