Overview from the Chairman

Charles J. Yeo, MD
Samuel D. Gross Professor and
Chair, Department of Surgery

It’s great to have a new academic year underway, and also review the past year’s accomplishments.

On the clinical side, there has been fine growth of programs in Endovascular, Minimally Invasive, Hepatopancreaticobiliary, Transplant, Cardiothoracic and Trauma Surgery.We had a superb Residency Review Committee site visit, receiving five-year accreditation and a commendation for educational initiatives. Our complex case volume has grown by approximately 40%. The SICU has doubled in size, and we’ve expanded to a satellite office at St. Agnes, adjacent to Methodist Hospital.

On the research front, 41 research grants were submitted and we currently have 15 funded research projects. The largest grant came from the American College of Surgeons and went to Dr. Arafat for her work in pancreatic carcinogenesis.

A paper by Drs. Grabo, Kairys, and DiMuzio on endovascular procedures, presented at the American Surgical Association in April, was recently published in the Annals of Surgery. Drs. Arafat and and Kennedy presented at the Southern Surgical Association, and Dr. Tarola presented at the American Association of Plastic Surgery. Furthermore, during Digestive Disease Week, we had three oral presentations and 10 poster presentations!

The new J.Wallace and Gail G. Davis Professorship supports Dr. Thomas Tulenko in his role as Director of the Division of Surgical Research.

This has been a year of growth and some change, but a year of overall stability and productivity!