News & Events

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 [...]

Faculty members Mary McGrath, M.D. and Carter Lebares, M.D., and general surgery resident Courtney Green, M.D.,MAEd each received the UCSF Excellence and Innovation Award in Graduate Medical Education (2018-19) at the end-of-year GME Celebration on June 17th at the Kalmanovitz Library on the UCSF Parnassus Heights campus.  Award recipients have demonstrated a commitment to advancing graduate medical education at UCSF through educational and clinical quality improvement, service excellence, and innovation, and have demonstrated excellence in:  Educational leadership in his/her department, [...]

UCSF Endocrine surgeon Quan-Yang Duh, M.D. was awarded the Oliver Cope Meritorious Achievement Award from the American Association of Endocrine Surgeons (AAES). The ceremony took place at the organization's annual meeting on April 7, 2019. The Cope award is highest honor given by the AAES and has been awarded only nine times in its history. The award was presented to Dr. Duh by another luminary in the field, Orlo Clark, M.D., professor emeritus of surgery at UCSF, and widely recognized as the father of endocrine surgery. Clark was introduced by UCSF endocrine surgeon Wen T. Shen, M.D., [...]

In this pilot randomized clinical trial of 21 first-year surgery residents led by PI Carter Lebares, MD,  director of the UCSF Center for Mindfulness in Surgery, taking a modified mindfulness-based stress reduction class was associated with higher mindfulness, lower stress, better executive function scores, faster motor skills, and unique activation of neural substrates associated with executive control and self-awareness during an emotional regulation task compared with control participants. Mindfulness-based stress reduction appeared to mitigate stress and enhance executive function in [...]

What is the background for this study? Dr. Lebares: This study was inspired by extensive evidence of the effectiveness of mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) for mitigating stress and enhancing performance in other high-stress populations like police and the military. We know that overwhelming stress is related to burnout and to cognitive errors – two critical issues within surgery, today. This prompted us to tailor and streamline an MBI specifically for surgeons, and to test it in our trainees. MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings? Dr. Lebares: This was a pilot study, as [...]

Treating the overproduction of one hormone may be a way to help a subset of the millions of Americans who suffer from obstructive sleep apnea, according to a new study. People with obstructive sleep apnea stop breathing for short periods while they are sleeping, which leads to a poor night's sleep and debilitating fatigue during the day. Most people with the condition need to use dental devices or CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) machines to sleep at night. But researchers at UC San Francisco have found that treating a condition in the adrenal glands causing an excess of [...]

The Department of Surgery warmly welcomes our eight new general surgery categorical residents comprising the Class of 2026. We congratulate this diverse, highly accomplished group for matching into our program. We look forward to the arrival of our new intern class in June and are honored to be part of their journey as they train to become future leaders in academic surgery.   UCSF Department Of SurgeryPGY-1 Categorical General Surgery Residents (2019-20)

We are pleased to announce that Emily Finlayson, M.D., M.S., FACS, professor of Surgery, Medicine (Geriatrics), and Health Policy at the University of California San Francisco has been named the new Vice Chair for Faculty Affairs and Development in the Department of Surgery. Dr. Finlayson received her MD at Harvard Medical School and MS from the Center for Evaluative Clinical Sciences at Dartmouth Medical School. She completed her general surgery residency at UCSF and her fellowship in colorectal surgery at the Mayo Clinic. Her NIH-funded work includes population-based analyses, clinical [...]

We are pleased to announce that Deborah M. Stein, MD, MPH, FACS, FCCM, currently the R Adams Cowley, MD Professor in Shock and Trauma at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, has been appointed Chief of Surgery at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center (ZSFG), commencing May 13, 2019.  Dr. Stein currently serves as the Co-Director of the Neurotrauma Center for the State of Maryland and as the Chief of Trauma at the R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore.  Her national service includes active participation in major trauma, critical care, and surgical [...]

UCSF trauma surgeon Andre R. Campbell, MD, FACS, FACP, FCCM has been elected to the Board of Governors Executive Committee for the American College of Surgeons, a prestigious honor. His election was announced at the 2018 Annual Meeting of American College of Surgeons Clinical Congress in October. Dr. Campbell is professor of surgery, division of general surgery; director of the surgery clerkship; and director of the surgical critical care fellowship at UCSF. He will be the Education Pillar Lead on the Executive Committee. New Regents, Board of Governors Executive Committee Members [...]

UCSF endocrine surgeon Sanziana A. Roman, M.D., FACS, was the organizer of a symposium centered on the experiences of women surgeons from around the world. In an article published in the December 2018 edition of the World Journal of Surgery, seven women surgeons drawn from diverse geographical backgrounds recounted their personal stories told in compelling narratives. Dr. Roman is professor of surgery in the UCSF Division of General Surgery. She also holds the positions of Director of Learning and Teaching in the Procedural Specialties and Dean's Diversity Leader for Leadership Equity and [...]

Julie Ann Sosa, MD, MA, FACS, Leon Goldman, MD, Distinguished Professorship in Surgery and chair of the UCSF Department of Surgery, delivered the 8th Annual Joseph A. Ignatius, MD Lecture in Surgery at Stanford University on October 30, 2018. The topic was "The rise of thyroid cancer and its evolving management: When is less more?" Dr. Sosa is a world-renowned endocrine surgeon with a major focus in thyroid cancer and clinical outcomes research.

Edward "Ed" Kim, M.D., an associate professor of surgery in the Division of General Surgery and Bian Wu, M.D., a clinical fellow in the Division of Vascular & Endovascular Surgery, are the recipients of prestigious teaching awards, reflecting their outstanding didactic skills and abiding commitment to the education of medical students and residents. Each were nominated by Ogonna Nnamani, a 3rd year medical student at UCSF. Ed Kim, M.D. - The Henry J. Kaiser Award for Excellence in Teaching  Dr. Ed Kim, a colorectal surgeon, who is also Director of the UCSF Surgical Skills Center, was [...]

2018 AAS TrailblazerAward - Curated tweets by UCSFSurgery

UCSF trauma surgeon Lucy Kornblith, M.D. has been awarded a 5-Year $1M National Institutes of Health (NIH) K23, Mentored Patient-Oriented Research Award to study to post-injury platelet biology. The award, through the National Institute of General Medical Studies, will support Dr. Kornblith's research through 2023.  The grant titled "Post-Injury Platelet Biology: Mechanisms and Outcomes", supports translational patient-oriented research. Specifically, Dr. Kornblith will investigate causal pathways, mechanisms, and associated outcomes of altered post-injury platelet biology in a prospective [...]

Trauma Surgeon Rachael Callcut, MD, MSPH has been named Chair of the Research and Scholarship Committee for the Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma (EAST) Trauma, for a three-year a term to commencing January 19, 2019. The Research and Scholarship Committee promotes the mentorship and development of young surgeon scientists through a variety of initiatives. The Chair is an integral part the leadership team at EAST, a prestigious and highly sought after position. Dr. Callcut is an associate professor of surgery in the UCSF Division of General Surgery and is based at Zuckerberg San [...]

Dr. Rachael Callcut, Associate Professor of Surgery at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Medical Center and Director of Data Science for the Center for Digital Health Innovation, partnered with her radiology colleagues and GE Healthcare to create an initial algorithm that can detect pneumothorax, a condition which strikes nearly 74,000 Americans each year[1] and can be deadly if not diagnosed quickly and accurately.[2] The challenge: a patient with this condition could wait between two to eight hours for his or her X-Ray to be read.[3] Today, Dr. Callcut and the UCSF team's [...]

Trauma surgeons at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center have been among the strongest proponents for physicians speaking out on the issue of gun violence and conducting research to reduce suffering and prevent needless and tragic deaths. They have harnessed the power of Twitter in the service of community outreach and effecting social change. Notably, Rachael A. Callcut, M.D., MSPH was among the group that created the Twitter handle, @ThisIsOurLane and Andre Campbell, M.D., appearing on TV and in other media outlets, has reprised the role he played in the YouTube [...]

UCSF trauma surgeon Rebecca Plevin, M.D. has been named the new director of the San Francisco Wraparound Project, the acclaimed hospital-based violence intervention program based at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital. Dr. Plevin received her M.D. from the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine and completed her residency in general surgery at the University of Washington.  She then completed a fellowship at UCSF in surgical critical care and trauma and emergency general surgery at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital. Her research focus is on injury [...]

The National Trauma Institute recently issued an update on the progress of CLOTT Study, a 2nd phase that will more closely investigate the role of platelet biology in post-traumatic pulmonary embolism. To that end, UCSF surgeon-scientist Lucy Kornblith, M.D. has been recruited by principal investigator M. Margaret "Peggy" Knudson, M.D., FACS.  Following a productive investigation of the incidence of pulmonary thrombi after injury and the role of clot breakdown in the development of post-traumatic pulmonary embolism, the CLOTT study group (Consortium of Leaders in the Study of Traumatic [...]