Research Fellowship Position

Halle Freiman: 2021-2022

Halle grew up on the Upper West Side of New York City. She graduated from Colgate University in 2013 where she earned her B.A. in Art History and Middle Eastern Studies. While she always wanted to pursue medicine, she fell with art at a young age when one of her teachers continuously took their class to the Metropolitan Museum of Art (her favorite place in NYC). After Colgate she then went on to complete a post-baccalaureate in pre-medical studies at Fordham University and then a master's in biomedical sciences at Tufts University. Halle travelled to Dublin, Ireland to complete her medical degree and graduated from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland in May 2021. With her unique background Halle loves explaining the intersection between art and medicine and hopes to continue this exploration throughout her career. She is a lifelong athlete and loves all things sports! She played soccer, ice hockey and lacrosse competitively growing up and then rugby in college and Gaelic football while attending medical school. Even though she is a city girl, she loves being outdoors and exploring what this amazing planet has to offer. Halle will be applying to orthopaedic residencies in the future and is excited about all that the world of orthopaedics has to offer.

Danika Baskar: 2020-2021

Danika graduated from Case Western Reserve University in May 2016 and earned her B.A. in International Studies with a concentration in global health. She is a medical student from Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School working under the mentorship of Dr. Frick while exploring her interest in pursuing pediatric orthopaedic surgery. Her work is centered around pediatric foot and ankle clinical research with a focus on congenital clubfoot. She is currently involved with overseeing studies investigating activity levels in children treated with Ponseti casting, characterizing the phenomenon of dynamic supination in clubfoot relapse with participation from an international panel, and evaluating the use of social media in clubfoot awareness. She is also working towards developing a pediatric foot/ankle outcomes assessment center using the novel Tekscan Strideway gait analysis system which will allow for the creation of a longitudinal database to report on practices that will improve clinical care for future patients. Additionally, Danika is assisting our faculty and research team with active patient enrollment for ongoing multi-site registries studying hip dysplasia and SCFE. After her research fellowship, Danika will complete her final year of medical school and will be applying as a candidate for residency in orthopaedic surgery. She hopes to further specialize in pediatric care as she truly enjoys working with children and their families, and continue her involvement in clinical research throughout her career. 

Brian Vuong: 2019-2020

Brian is originally from San Diego, CA. He graduated from Brown University May 2019 with an Sc.B. (Honors) in Biomedical Engineering. Brian has previously conducted research on novel preservation systems for cartilage allografts in the Department of Orthopaedics at Brown University as well as synthetic biology research at NASA Ames Research Center. His research interests include biomechanics, devices and implants, and tissue engineering. Brian will be assisting with various projects in the division under the mentorship of Dr. Frick and Dr. Shea. He has also been spearheading the efforts of the hip dysplasia research under Dr. Stephanie Pun.

Brian moved to a clinical research coordinator role under the mentorship of Dr. Shea prior to pursuing graduate school.

Eli Cahan: 2018-2019

Eli’s research interests address the intersection of clinical care, health policy, and health economics. His current work addressing clinical care includes the utilization of novel haptic sensor technology to guide bracing and casting, the illumination of orthopaedic phenotypes of rare diseases, and the elucidation of variability in accurately forecasting disability in post-surgical patients. Projects focusing on health policy include design of a multi-state concussion registry in high school and NCAA athletes, dissemination of a tool to assess risk factors for shoulder injury in high school swimmers, and construction of a within-state initiative to assess barriers to care following positive screening for scoliosis in schools. Initiatives targeting health economics include the formulation of a framework for conducting high-quality clinical research and the implementation of a standardized care map across supply chain and perioperative care for patients undergoing spinal surgery.

Eli is matriculating into Stanford's Masters of Science in Health Policy program, and is a Knight-Hennessey fellow. Congrats!

Evan Ball: 2017-2018

Evan was our first research coordinator/fellow for the Pediatric Orthopaedic Surgery division at Stanford. During his time, Evan was involved in the study coordination and execution of various research studies. He spearheaded various tasks such as literature reviews, IRB protocol writing, study design development, data collection and analysis, study implementation and abstract and manuscript writing. Evan played an instrumental part in growing our research infrastructure by supporting faculty in research operations, communications, and ensuring sound study ethics. As a former athlete, Evan’s research interests related to orthopaedic sports medicine. Evan is currently interviewing for analyst positions at capital firms and financial institutions, where he will utilize the healthcare acumen and analytical skills he advanced during his time with us for a career in the financial services sector.