People

Leadership

Robert L. and Mary Ellenburg Professor of Surgery, and Professor, by courtesy, of Health Policy

Bio

Arden M. Morris, MD, MPH is Professor of Surgery and Vice-Chair for Clinical Research in the Stanford Department of Surgery. She is Director of the S-SPIRE Center, a health services research collaborative to study patient-centered care, clinical optimization, and health care economics. In her own work, Dr. Morris uses quantitative, qualitative, and mixed research methods to focus on quality of and equity in cancer care. To that end, she currently is funded by American Cancer Society and NIH to study access to care, clinical outcomes, and policy related to insurance design. Dr. Morris currently serves as Vice Chair of the American College of Surgeons Surgical Research Committee, the American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons’ representative to the American Joint Commission on Cancer, and Associate Editor for Surgery at JAMA Network Open.

Faculty

Professor (Research) of Surgery (Surgery Policy Improvement Research and Education Center)

Bio

Alex Sox-Harris is a leader in several domains of health services research, including quality measurement, pragmatic rigorous evaluation, predictive modeling, and improvement science (implementation and de-implementation). As a VA Research Career Scientist and Professor in the Stanford Department of Surgery, he has published over 250 scientific papers, has over 15 years of continuous federal research funding, and has received numerous national awards for the innovation and impact of his research. In addition to his own work, Dr. Sox-Harris mentors and supports surgeons to produce publishable research and secure research funding.

Professor (Research) of Surgery (Surgery Policy Improvement Research and Education Center) and, by courtesy, of Health Policy

Bio

Todd Wagner is a Professor in the Department of Surgery at Stanford University. He studies health information, efficiency and value, and health care access. He is particularly interested in developing learning health care systems that provide high value care. In addition to his role at Stanford, he Directs the Health Economics Resource Center at the Palo Alto VA, where he is a VA Research Career Scientist and he co-directs the VA/NCI Big Data Fellowship.

Dr. Wagner's Lab

Associate Professor of Surgery (General Surgery)

Bio

Dr. Knowlton is an Associate Professor of Surgery and an Acute Care Surgeon whose practice encompasses trauma surgery, emergency general surgery and surgical critical care. She is an NIH and ARPA-H funded researcher whose focus is on improving access to innovative, high- quality surgical care. She obtained her medical degree at McGill University and completed her general surgery residency at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. Her desire to understand varied healthcare systems and develop solutions for vulnerable surgical populations led her to obtain an M.P.H. at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and complete a research fellowship at the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative. After training as a Surgical Critical Care fellow at Stanford University Medical Center, she joined the faculty as an Assistant Professor of Surgery in early 2018. She was promoted to Associate Professor in the University Medical Line in 2023. Her institutional leadership roles include serving as the Unit Based Medical Director of the Surgical Intensive Care Unit, the Associate Vice Chair of Research for the Stanford Department of Surgery, the SHC Surgical AI Lead for Early Clinical Deterioration, and the Associate Program Director for the Surgical Critical Care fellowship.

Dr. Knowlton's Lab

Professor of Surgery (Vascular Surgery)

Bio

Shipra Arya, MD SM FACS is a Professor of Surgery at the Stanford University School of Medicine and section chief of vascular surgery at VA Palo Alto Healthcare System. She has a Master’s degree in epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health with focus on research methodology and cardiovascular epidemiology. She completed her General Surgery Residency at Creighton University Medical Center followed by a Vascular Surgery Fellowship at University of Michigan. She has been funded by American Heart Association (AHA), NIH/NIA GEMSSTAR grant, VA Palo Alto Center for Innovation and Implementation (Ci2i), and is currently funded by VA HSR&D for a multicenter stepped wedge cluster randomized clinical trial called “PAtient-centered mUltidiSciplinary Care for vEterans Undergoing Surgery (PAUSE) trial”. Her current work focuses on streamlining frailty evaluation, as well as implementation of patient and system level interventions to improve surgical quality and to provide high-value and patient centered care. She has multiple administrative roles in surgical quality improvement as Director of Surgical Quality at VAPAHCS; Center director for Stanford University in the Vascular Quality Initiative (VQI); and the Associate Medical Director of the Northern California region for VQI, which is the national registry database and patient safety organization for Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS). Her involvement in SVS VQI also extends to being a member of the steering committee of the Vascular Implant Surveillance and Interventional Outcomes Network (VISION) to improve the quality, safety and effectiveness of vascular care. She also serves as the President of the Surgical Outcomes Club, a national organization of surgical health services researchers, and chairs multiple national committees: VA surgeons committee for the SVS and Diversity and Inclusion Committee for the Association of VA surgeons.

Bio

Dr. Carolyn Dacey Seib is a fellowship-trained endocrine surgeon and board certified general surgeon. Her practice is focused on surgery of the thyroid, parathyroid, and adrenal glands. Dr. Seib has clinical and research expertise in the surgical management of endocrine disorders in older adults, including primary hyperparathyroidism, thyroid cancer, and hyperthyroidism. Dr. Seib completed her undergraduate education at Princeton University, graduating summa cum laude in 2004. She received her M.D. at the New York University School of Medicine and then attended residency in General Surgery at UCSF. Dr. Seib also completed a fellowship in Endocrine Surgery at UCSF, during which she cared for patients with complex disorders of the thyroid, parathyroid, and adrenal glands. Dr. Seib focuses on providing individualized care for patients with thyroid malignancy, hyperthyroidism, primary hyperparathyroidism, and adrenal disorders. She has received funding from the National Institute on Aging and the American Thyroid Association to study the surgical management of endocrine disorders in older adults and has a number of peer-reviewed journal publications on this topic that have received national attention, including being featured in the New York Times.

Assistant Professor of Surgery (General Surgery)

Bio

Dr. Dawes is a board-certified, fellowship-trained colon and rectal surgeon. He is also an Assistant Professor in the Department of Surgery, Division of General Surgery at Stanford University School of Medicine. Dr. Dawes treats a wide variety of conditions involving the colon, rectum, and anus, always leveraging the latest evidence and technologies. He is fully trained in minimally invasive surgical techniques--including laparoscopic, robotic, and trans-anal minimally invasive surgery--and strives to employ them, whenever possible, in an effort to reduce pain and shorten recovery. In addition to his clinical work, Dr. Dawes is a health services researcher, receiving his Ph.D. in Health Policy and Management from the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. His research focuses on policy development, measurement, and evaluation for patients with colorectal conditions. He is particularly interested in using data to drive policy interventions aimed at reducing disparities in quality, access, and value. Prior to joining Stanford, Dr. Dawes completed a residency in General Surgery at the University of California, Los Angeles followed by a fellowship in Colon and Rectal Surgery at the University of Minnesota. He has authored articles in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), Cancer, Diseases of the Colon and Rectum, Health Services Research, and JAMA Surgery. His work has also been featured in the Los Angeles Times, the Daily Press, and HealthDay News. A native of the San Francisco Bay Area, Dr. Dawes received his A.B. in Public and International Affairs from Princeton University and his M.D. from Vanderbilt University.

Liam Rose, PhD

Bio

Liam Rose is a health economist and investigator with the Health Economics Resource Center at VA Palo Alto. His research focuses on applied microeconomics with an emphasis on econometric techniques that can provide causal inference. His work focuses on access to care, utilization, and changes in health in the transitions to Medicare and retirement. Liam has a PhD in Economics from the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Casual - Non-Exempt, Surgery

Bio

Dr. Graham is a health services researcher with extensive experience in data management and analysis. She focuses on surgical outcomes research using large administrative datasets from the Veterans Health Administration (VA) and other single-site healthcare systems. Her research interests include improving clinical care processes using causal inference methodologies and implementation science to translate evidence into practice. Her research has significantly contributed to understanding and improving surgical outcomes, particularly within the VA healthcare system, through rigorous epidemiological and health services research methods. During her tenure with the Veterans Health Administration and Stanford Medical Center, Dr. Graham's research has focused on using large administrative datasets to improve surgical outcomes, enhance surgical training, and optimize healthcare delivery for veterans undergoing surgical procedures. She has expertise in novel analytic approaches, including causal inference methodologies, and has presented on examining complex relationships and reporting nonlinear trends in surgical outcomes research. Dr. Graham has a substantial publication record, with over 4,600 citations and an h-index of 32 (as of June 2024). Her work has been published in a number of reputable high-impact journals, including JAMA Surgery, Annals of Surgery, and Health Affairs. These experiences have equipped her with a robust understanding of health data and novel data science methodologies, as well as the ability to design and execute complex experiments, analyze data, and communicate results effectively. In addition to her technical skills, she is a strong collaborator and communicator. She frequently collaborates with clinician-scientists to produce valid and impactful surgical outcomes research. She has successfully led multidisciplinary teams, mentored junior researchers, and fostered productive partnerships with industry and academic collaborators. She is adept at managing multiple projects simultaneously and thrives in dynamic, fast-paced environments.

Diem Linda Tran, PhD

Bio

Diem Tran holds a master's degree in Public Policy and a PhD in Health Policy and Management from UCLA. Her research centers on the social production of health inequities and disparities in health care stemming from public policies and inefficiencies in delivery systems. Diem is currently a Veterans Affairs investigator with the Department of Veterans Affairs and Stanford University.

Professor of Surgery (General Surgery)

Bio

Dr. Eisenberg is a board-certified general surgeon who specializes in minimally invasive and metabolic & bariatric surgery, in the surgical treatment of benign foregut, hindgut, and metabolic disease. He completed a minimally invasive surgery/bariatric fellowship and has specialty training in robotic surgery. His clinical practice is concentrated on the surgical treatment of U.S. Veterans within the Veterans Health Administration, and his research interest focuses on metabolic & bariatric surgery and its outcomes, and the diagnosis and implications of obesity in the Veteran population with spinal cord injury.

Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine

Bio

Dr. Govindarajan is a health services researcher with expertise in emergency medical services and healthcare systems. The goals of her research are to improve access to specialized centers for acute stroke care (thrombolysis-capable and thrombectomy-capable centers) through early detection of stroke in the prehospital setting. Following her widely-cited (initial work on stroke detection by emergency medical services, she received a career development award (K08 HS17965) from the Agency of Healthcare Research and Quality to study the impact of a stroke destination protocol for emergency service provides that increased access to primary stroke centers in two California counties. The findings from this work has led to a national study on the effectiveness of a stroke destination protocol for emergency medical service providers and is funded by the Agency of Health Care Research and Quality (R01 HS026207). Her collaborators are scientists at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention) and Stanford-Surgery Policy Improvement Research and Education.

Emile Holman Professor of Surgery

Bio

Dr. Mary T. Hawn is the Stanford Medicine Professor of Surgery and Chair of the Department of Surgery at Stanford University. Dr. Hawn, a native of Michigan, received her education and surgical training at the University of Michigan. Her clinical area of specialty is minimally invasive foregut surgery. Dr. Hawn is a funded health services researcher and her projects focus on quality measurement and policy in surgical populations. She is a Director for the American Board of Surgery and serves on the editorial board of Annals of Surgery, Journal of the American College of Surgeons, Journal of Gastrointestinal Surgery and the American Journal of Surgery. Dr. Hawn has several additional leadership roles in American Surgery including Chair of the American College of Surgeons Scientific Forum Committee and as a Trustee and Treasurer for the Surgical Society of the Alimentary Tract. She is the co-Editor of a new surgical textbook Operative Techniques in Surgery.

Associate Professor of Surgery (General Surgery)

Bio

Dr. Cindy Kin is a colon and rectal surgeon in Stanford, California and is affiliated with Stanford Health Care-Stanford Hospital. She received her medical degree from Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and has been in practice between 11-20 years. Dr. Cindy Kin has expertise in treating surgical removal of colon, colonoscopy, among other conditions

Associate Professor of Surgery (General Surgery)

Bio

Dr. Kristan Staudenmayer received her medical degree at the University of Texas at Southwestern Medical School in 1999, and completed her residency in General Surgery at Parkland Hospital in 2006. During her post-graduate training, she conducted NIH T32-funded research at Harborview Hospital evaluating the effects of innate immunity on trauma. She obtained further training in Trauma and Surgical Critical at San Francisco General Hospital, completing her training in 2008. She was subsequently double-boarded in General Surgery and Surgical Critical Care. Dr. Staudenmayer joined Stanford in 2008. She has developed a robust research program and active clinical practice. Her clinical and research interests have contributed to Stanford’s multi-disciplinary approach to the management of surgical trauma. Dr. Staudenmayer’s clinical focus is on trauma, emergency general surgery, and surgical critical care, and her research interests encompass trauma systems of care and vulnerable patient populations such as the elderly. Her efforts have been noteworthy and recognized in her 2013 K08 grant from the National Institute on Aging to study trauma in the elderly population. In 2016, Dr. Staudenmayer was honored by becoming the inaugural Gordon and Betty Moore Endowed Faculty Scholar, which helps to support her ongoing research efforts. Additional research accomplishments include being a co-principal investigator on an NIH CTSA award evaluating trauma systems. Dr. Staudenmayer has published over 50 articles and book chapters and has served on the editorial review board of several academic journals. She contributes nationally towards the academic mission by serving on committees for both the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma and the Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma. Dr. Staudenmayer was promoted to Associate Professor of Surgery in 2016, and continues her research, policy and advocacy work to improve the care and outcomes for patients with traumatic injuries and critical surgical illnesses.

Clinical Professor, Surgery - General Surgery

Bio

Dr. Thomas Weiser is a general, emergency, and trauma surgeon, and surgical intensivist. He treats and cares for injured patients and those with acute surgical emergencies as well as manages critically ill surgical patients in the Intensive Care Unit. His research is focused on evaluating the role surgical care plays in the delivery of health services in resource poor settings, in particular low and middle income countries. He is interested in barriers to access and provision of surgical care, the quality of surgical services, and outcomes research as well as the science of implementation, how improvements can be made, and how to strengthen compliance with best practices and change behaviors for the better. He also has an interest in domestic policy as it relates to trauma outcomes, trauma systems, insurance coverage and costs of care, and firearm violence. Dr. Weiser's projects have focused on the quality of surgical care, strategies for improving the safety and reliability of surgical delivery, and team communications. He works closely with Lifebox, a nonprofit focused on improving surgical and anesthetic safety worldwide, where he was previously the Consulting Medical Officer. Lifebox delivers programs throughout the world in combination with local partners including individual professionals, professional societies, hospitals, other NGOs, and ministries of health. Lifebox works with hospitals in Ethiopia, Liberia, Madagascar, India, Honduras, and Nicaragua, amongst others, to improve care and evaluate the impact of our work. A few programs of particular impact are the distribution of low cost devices to improve the safety of care (including pulse oximeters for the routine monitoring of patients undergoing anesthesia and a new surgical headlight program) and Clean Cut, a surgical infection prevention and control program now being introduced in several countries. From 2006-2009, he was part of the World Health Organization’s Safe Surgery Saves Lives program where he quantified the global volume of surgery and created, implemented, evaluated, and promoted the WHO Surgical Safety Checklist. He has worked with the WHO and the World Bank, and is completing a Gates Grand Challenge Grant-funded study to improve the safety of cesarean section in Ethiopia. He is a Program Director at Wellcome Leap where he leads Surgery:Assess/Validate/Expand (SAVE).

Professor of Surgery (General Surgery)

Bio

Dr. Wren is a board certified general surgeon who specializes in the surgical treatment of complex hepatobiiary diseases and gastrointestinal cancer: including stomach, pancreas, intestinal, and colon and rectal cancers. She completed fellowship training in advanced hepatobiliary surgery and performs open, laparoscopic, and robotic approaches to these cancers. Dr. Wren is also very involved in humanitarian surgery and global surgery. She works and manages educational partnerships in Sub Saharan Africa. She is faculty fellow of the Stanford Center for Innovation and Global Health.

Associate Professor of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine (MSD)

Bio

After completing both a Patient Safety Fellowship and a Masters in Health Services Research at Stanford, Dr. Mudumbai joined the faculty as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative, and Pain Medicine in 2014. Dr. Mudumbai is an outcomes and health services researcher who works to integrate his clinical, administrative, and research roles. Dr. Mudumbai's main research interests are in translational research: 1) optimizing therapeutic strategies and reducing adverse outcomes related to medication management, particularly opioids; and 2) measuring and improving the quality of perioperative and pain management.

David L. Gregg, MD Professor of General Surgery

Bio

Dr. David A. Spain is a Professor of Acute Care Surgery. His clinical areas of specialty are emergency and elective general surgery, trauma and critical care. His research focus is assessment of clinical care, systems of care and assessment of stress response and PTSD after trauma. He is a President of the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma and was a Councilor of the American Board of Surgery and Director of the Surgical Critical Care board. He is the editor of the textbook Scientific American's Critical Care of the Surgical Patient. Dr. Spain is also the General Surgery Residency Program Director at Stanford.

Assistant Professor of Surgery (Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery)

Bio

Dr. Cliff Sheckter is a California native, growing up in the rural Eastern Sierra. He graduated from UCLA with a BS in Anthropology and earned summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa honors. He attended USC (Keck) for medical school on an academic scholarship and graduated valedictorian with Alpha Omega Alpha honors. He fell in love with burn care while at USC/LA General Medical Center and completed surgical training at Stanford. While in residency, he pursued a fellowship/postdoc in Health Systems Design at Stanford’s Clinical Excellence Research Center (CERC). He earned an MS in Health Policy from Stanford, focusing on health economics. He received additional training in Surgical Critical Care and Burn Surgery at the University of Washington. Dr. Sheckter is a health services and health policy researcher. His work focuses on burn prevention, health economics in surgical care, and health equity outcomes in burn care. He has authored over 130 articles and numerous book chapters. His research has been published in JAMA, JAMA Network Open, JAMA Surgery, Annals of Surgery, Journal of Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery, Burns, and Journal of Burn Care & Research. His work has been featured in USA Today and the New York Times. He was the recipient of a career development award from the NIH and has funding from the Plastic Surgery Foundation. Dr. Sheckter was awarded the American Burn Association (ABA) Traveling Fellow for 2023 and has won top abstract at the ABA Annual Meeting multiple times. He is an active member of the ABA Burn Prevention and Research Committees. Dr. Sheckter is one of a few surgeons double-board certified in Surgical Critical Care and Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery. He practices critical care medicine as an intensivist in the Stanford Surgical ICU. He is the Director of the Regional Burn Center at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center which is the only burn/trauma center for the San Francisco Bay Area. He performs scar reconstruction using surgical and laser techniques.

Clinical Professor, Surgery - General Surgery

Bio

Pelvic floor and functional bowel disorders refer to a series of symptoms and anatomic findings that effect men and women of all ages. These may include: constipation, difficult evacuation, fecal incontinence, irritable bowel disorders, diarrhea, pelvic organ prolapse, urinary and sexual dysfunction and pain. Although not life threatening, these disorders can severely affect quality of life and individual performance. Over the past two decades I have dedicated my career to working with other specialists for comprehensive care for individuals with pelvic floor disorders. In July 2017, I joined The Department of Surgery, Division of Colorectal Surgery at Stanford University as the Medical Director of the Pelvic Health Center. I previously spent the prior decade at Cleveland Clinic running a multidisciplinary clinic and performing over 200 combined procedures in conjunction with colleagues in urology and urogynecology. We developed a robotic surgical approach to woman with vaginal and rectal prolapse and performed many surgeries to repair intestinal and rectal fistula (abnormal communications between the intestine and vagina). Prior to that I established a Pelvic Floor Center at Maimonides Medical Center received a Jahnigan Career Development Award looking at multicompartment prolapse in elderly women. In addition to performing surgery and teaching throughout my career, I have maintained a commitment to long-term follow up of patients after surgery. Although my training and focus is around surgical techniques and solutions for anorectal disorders and pelvic health, I believe that prevention, non-surgical alternatives, diet, exercise, and behavior management are vitally important to patient success. One of my many goals is to educate patients, health care providers, and trainees about pelvic floor disorders. When I am not at work I enjoy quality time with my three teenagers, dog, friends and I practice yoga.

Associate Professor of Surgery (Pediatric Surgery)

Bio

Dr. Stephanie Chao is an Associate Professor and Associate Vice Chair of Professional Development of Surgery. She also serves as the Trauma Medical Director at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital. Dr. Chao is a practicing pediatric surgeon caring for children from birth until adulthood. Dr. Chao is also the Principal Investigator of the Chao Lab which focuses on translational research to bridge research into prevention, informed by the lessons gained at the bedside. The Chao Lab has active studies in injury prevention and improving pediatric trauma care; the lab has two core focuses 1) improving child abuse detection and 2) reducing firearm injuries in children. Her approach involves implementing educational programs and fostering community-based activism to address the root causes. The lab’s P.L.E.D.G.E. campaign is a school-based curriculum for K-12 children focused on firearm safety, storage, and mental health awareness to reduce firearm related injury and death among children. The P.L.E.D.G.E Campaign challenges students to Prevent, Learn, Educate, Deter, Guard against, and Empower each other and their communities to improve gun safety. Dr. Chao firmly believes in the transformative power of education and community engagement. By emphasizing gun safety rather than focusing solely on gun control, she aims to bridge the political divide and promote a comprehensive strategy that protects young all people. For this work, Dr. Chao was selected as one an honoree in the 2024 class of Presidential Leadership Scholars, a unique leadership development program and partnership among the presidential centers of George W. Bush, William J. Clinton, George H.W. Bush, and Lyndon B. Johnson.

Dr. Chao's Lab

Michelle P. Lin, MD

Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine (Adult Clinical/Academic)

Bio

Dr. Michelle Lin is an emergency physician-scientist whose work centers health care delivery around the priorities of those who need it the most--particularly people who frequently require emergency care. Her active NIH-funded research projects develop new quality measures based on what matters most to patients; improve post-ED discharge care for high risk patients; and enhance health professions workforce diversity and retention. Her prior funded work has evaluated the impact of value-based care on emergency care delivery and payment; drivers of hospitalization during ED visits; and changes in the intensity of emergency care.

Michelle M. Chen, MD, MHS

Assistant Professor of Otolaryngology - Head & Neck Surgery (OHNS)

Bio

Dr. Chen is a fellowship-trained head and neck surgical oncologist with a board certification in otolaryngology and a clinical assistant professor with the Stanford School of Medicine Department of Otolaryngology. Her practice focuses on the treatment of cancers that affect the head and neck. She has received additional training in microvascular reconstruction and transoral robotic surgery. Dr. Chen has an active lab involved in head and neck cancer health services research and her work has appeared in numerous journals, including The Journal of the American Medical Association, Cancer, Journal of the National Cancer Institute, and Journal of Clinical Oncology. She has also authored chapters in textbooks on head and neck cancer treatment.

Dr. Chen is a member of the American Academy of Otolaryngology—Head & Neck Surgery (AAOHNS) and the American Head & Neck Society.

Simeng Wang, MD

Clinical Instructor, Surgery - General Surgery

Bio

Simeng Wang, MD is a clinical instructor in the Section of Acute Care Surgery at Stanford University School of Medicine. He received his undergraduate degrees in biological sciences and economics at the University of Rochester, followed by medical degree at the University of Pittsburgh. He completed general surgery residency at NYU and surgical critical care fellowship at Stanford. Dr. Wang became interested in trauma surgery and health policy during residency working at Bellevue Hospital, the safety-net hospital of New York City. He is currently pursuing a Master's Degree in Health Policy at Stanford and a research fellowship advised by Dr. Knowlton on improving access, quality, and delivery of surgical care for vulnerable populations.

Biostatisticians

Biostatistician 3, Stanford-Surgery Policy Improvement Research and Education Center

Bio

Kate is a biostatistician with the Stanford-Surgery Policy Improvement Research & Education Center (S-SPIRE). She has a degree in epidemiology and has worked in both academic and public health settings. She has particular experience working with Medicaid claims data and analyzing patient reported health outcomes. Kate collaborates with Department of Surgery researchers on study design, data analysis, and reporting.

Bio

Ganesh Rajasekar, MPH is a Biostatistician in the S-SPIRE Center. He received his graduate degree in Epidemiology from Emory University in 2018. Since then, he has been involved in the development of grant-funded manuscripts, abstracts, and presentations. His past experience includes statistical collaboration in the Knight’s Alzheimer Disease Research Center (ADRC) in the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the UC Davis Health Department of Surgery. He currently serves as a biostatistician to Dr. Arden Morris and Dr. Aaron Dawes for their research projects. His research interests lie within health services and outcomes research, with an emphasis on utilizing administrative databases to investigate health disparities in underserved populations.

Bio

Daniel Logan is a Research Data Analyst with the Stanford-Surgery Policy Improvement Research & Education Center (S-SPIRE). Daniel obtained a bachelors degree in Sociology from Bates College as well as a bootcamp diploma in Data Science. He has experience with a variety quantitative and qualitative research methodologies, making him unique situated for mixed methods research. As a research data analyst, he puts this background to use for machine learning optimization, data management, and general analytics for clinical and observational studies.

Bio

Heather S. Day, MS, is a Biostatistician for the Stanford-Surgery Policy Improvement Research & Education Center (S-SPIRE). Heather received her Master’s Degree in Biostatistics at the University of Utah. Prior to joining S-SPIRE, she served as a statistician on various studies across multiple clinical disciplines including: biomedical technology, pediatrics, women’s health, epidemiology, and chronic illnesses. As a biostatistician, she works with medical professionals to design, analyze, and interpret findings for research studies.

Bio

Ashley Y Son, BS is a Research Data Analyst for the Stanford-Surgery Policy Improvement Research & Education Center (S-SPIRE). Ashley received her bachelor's degree in Statistics and Data Science at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Bio

Joshua Grab is a Biostatistician at the S-SPIRE Center in the Department of Surgery. He has Masters' degrees in Biostatistics and Mathematics. Josh has 12 years of experience as a biostatistician and data analyst. As a data analyst at UCSF, he worked primarily for the Liver Transplant Center doing survival analyses. At Wake Forest University, he worked on genome-wide association studies for various disease conditions. Before that, he worked at the Duke Clinical Research Institute (DCRI), building logistic models for mortality within the Society of Thoracic Surgeons' National Cardiac Database. Josh has been a SAS user for all of his time in biostatistics and has beginner to intermediate skills with various other software packages, including R, STATA, and MATLAB, and is learning Python. In addition to his biostatistics career, Josh also has 7 years of experience teaching mathematics and introductory statistics at the community college level.

Bio

Amber W. Trickey, PhD, MS, CPH, is a health services biostatistician working with the S-SPIRE Center. She supports multidisciplinary teams in research design, implementation, and analysis. Dr. Trickey obtained degrees in epidemiology and biostatistics, and certifications in public health and SAS data analysis. She has evaluated data quality in surgical and trauma care, supported multiple clinical trials, and led data validation studies using the ACS-NSQIP surgical registry and administrative claims. Dr. Trickey has contributed to public and private grants on surgical safety, healthcare quality metrics, simulation-based training, team communication, error disclosure, and emergency services.

Social Sciences Researchers

S-SPIRE Project Manager, Stanford-Surgery Policy Improvement Research and Education Center

kdavis3@stanford.edu

Bio

Kristen Davis-Lopez, MPH, PMP is the Research Project Manager at the S-SPIRE Center. She has a background in biology as well as public health. She supports multiple principal investigators with their current funded projects as project manager. She leads the Social Science Research Professionals in the S-SPIRE Center and also assists with the grant submission process within the Department of Surgery acting as a liaison with the Research Management Group.

Social Science Research Professional 1, Stanford-Surgery Policy Improvement Research and Education Center

anjnamb@stanford.edu

Bio

Anjali Nambiar, B.S., is a Social Science Research Professional at the Surgery Policy Improvement Research and Education (S-SPIRE) Center. Anjali completed her degree in Biological Sciences. She has coordinated a variety of clinical research projects and worked with several public health nonprofits to implement new programs at community-based clinics and organizations.

Social Science Research Professional 1, Stanford-Surgery Policy Improvement Research and Education Center

peiqic@stanford.edu

Bio

Peiqi Chen, M.A., B.A., is a Social Science Research Professional at the S-SPIRE Center. She holds a BA from the University of Iowa with a background in Sociology and Psychology. She also gained a certificate in Nonprofit Organization Management & Philanthropy. Currently she is still in her MA program in Social Science at the University of Chicago and writing a thesis about family planning policy evaluation on women’s maternity rights. At S-SPIRE, she assists with clinical researchers on qualitative data gathering and analysis. Before attending Stanford, she completed two internships at nonprofit organizations. She conducted research on social stigma toward COVID19 patient and front-line health workers during the pandemic. Her research interests lie in between sexual health, policy outcomes evaluation, and social welfare improvement for underrepresented population.

Social Science Research Professional 2, Stanford-Surgery Policy Improvement Research and Education Center

zcosby@stanford.edu

Bio

Zaria Cosby, MPH, is a Social Science Research Professional at the S-SPIRE Center. She completed her Master of Public Health with a concentration in Biostatistics and Epidemiology, as well as her Bachelor of Science in Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, at the University of Southern California. During her time at USC, Zaria worked on multiple projects across a variety of topics, the most recent being her master’s capstone: a mixed-methods study into the lived experiences of women of color with HIV during the Covid pandemic. At S-SPIRE, she supports qualitative and quantitative data collection, analysis, and interpretation. Zaria also holds a Certified Personal Trainer certification from the National Academy of Sports Medicine. No matter the position or project, Zaria’s overarching goal is to help people become their healthiest selves through research and education.

Postdoctoral Scholars

Alexa Lynn Pohl, MD, PhD

Bio

Social context creates disparities in cancer care across broad domains: in screening, time to start of treatment, timely receipt of appropriate neoadjuvant, surgical, and adjuvant therapies, and in receipt of surveillance for survivors. Pragmatic, patient-centered research on the root causes of disparities – and rigorous evaluation of policies and programs to address these causes – is needed to reduce preventable cancer mortality. My longstanding interest in health-related disparities and patient-centered research arose while completing my PhD on sex-differential autism risk at the University of Cambridge. I grew uncomfortable with the fact that my research relied on the time and commitment of participants but would never improve their lives directly. As a result, I developed a community-based participatory research study on the experiences of autistic mothers, which received pilot funding from the UK’s National Institute of Healthcare Research (NIHR) Collaboration for Applied Health Research and Care East of England. For me, the natural next step was medical school, where I was surprised to find an intellectual home in surgery. The introspective and self-critiquing nature of the specialty resonated with my desire to ask pragmatic, outcome-focused questions as a researcher and my clinical desire to make a tangible improvement in patients’ lives. Ultimately, I aim to be a practicing surgeon with a productive research program on patient-centered outcomes and the effective and equitable delivery of high-quality oncologic surgical care.

Postdoctoral Scholar, General Surgery

Bio

Ken Nieser is a postdoctoral research fellow through the Big Data-Scientist Training Enhancement Program (BD-STEP) at the Palo Alto VA and in the Department of Surgery, Stanford School of Medicine. Ken received a BA in Physics and Mathematics from Swarthmore College and a PhD in Epidemiology with a minor in Statistics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. During his PhD, Ken developed and applied statistical methods for improving algorithmic fairness of data analyses used to inform screening and treatment of mental illnesses. These projects included development of an approach for detecting sample subsets with differential psychological symptom patterns and a sample representation reweighting method for improving the precision of subgroup-specific treatment effect estimation. Ken’s current research interests are in health care inequities, quality measurement, and algorithmic fairness. During his fellowship, Ken will be working on investigating the statistical reliability of quality measures and decomposing health care disparities to provide practical information for resolving inequities, with applications in mental health care and surgical care.

Postdoctoral Scholar, Health Policy

Bio

Nate Breg is a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University's Department of Health Policy and at the Palo Alto Veterans Health Administration. He earned his PhD at Carnegie Mellon University and his BA at Tufts University. His interest in health care providers intersects with questions from labor economics and industrial organization. Nate's current research investigates how providers respond to incentives, how they decide to adopt new technology, and how health care services affect local economies and local health. He is a 2020-2021 recipient of the Fellowship in Digital Health from CMU's Center for Machine Learning and Health. He previously worked at RTI International on evaluations of government health care initiatives, prospective payment systems, and health care delivery quality measures, employing econometrics and other quantitative methods. His clients included the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the U.S. Health and Human Services Department’s Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE). Research interests: health economics, labor economics, industrial organization, public economics, productivity, reimbursement and regulation, imperfect competition, organizational economics

Postdoctoral Scholar, General Surgery

Bio

Jasmin Moshfegh is a Postdoctoral Scholar at the Department of Surgery at Stanford University. She received her PhD in Health Policy from Stanford University in 2024. In her current research she studies the consequences of healthcare innovation. Jasmin is a previous AHRQ T32 fellow and an AHRQ R36 awardee.

Postdoctoral Scholar, General Surgery

Bio

Ken Suzuki is a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University's Department of Surgery. He received his PhD in Economics from the University of California at Santa Cruz in June 2024. Before UC Santa Cruz, he earned his MA in Economics from Hitotsubashi University in 2017 and his BA in Economics from Yokohama National University in 2015. His research interests include health economics, applied microeconomics, econometrics, and statistical causal inference. His research utilizes large administrative datasets from the Veterans Health Administration (VA) to examine how health policies affect patient healthcare utilization and health outcomes.

Postdoctoral Scholar, General Surgery

Bio

Hannah Bae is a Postdoctoral Scholar in the Department of Surgery at Stanford University. She is an applied microeconomist whose research lies at the intersection of health economics and public finance. Her research interests include understanding how governments allocate scarce health resources as well as the impact of government regulation on family health insurance. She received her PhD in Economics from UC San Diego in 2024.

Research Scholars

Basic Life Research Scientist, Stanford-Surgery Policy Improvement Research and Education Center

Bio

I am interested in developing medical imaging-based AI models to identify patients with locally advanced rectal cancer who achieve a clinical complete response to neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy, with the goal of sparing them from surgery and its associated risks.

Administration

S-SPIRE Research Office Administrator 3, Stanford-Surgery Policy Improvement Research and Education Center

Bio

For over fifteen years at Stanford University, Ana Mezynski is happier than ever as a Cardinal At Work. As the Research Office Administrator 3 for the S-SPIRE Center, she currently assists with the daily tasks of running the office including the onboarding of faculty and postdoctoral researchers, managing finances and facilities, and planning educational workshops. Through her experiences, she has become proficient with a myriad of administrative applications including Epic, Oracle, Qualtrics, and Microsoft Office. As a website developer, she has been trained in Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) Software. She also supports Center Director Dr. Arden Morris and is actively increasing her skill set to include web and print design. In addition to her office management duties, Ana recently became a published author for her contributions to the research project "Lost in translation: informed consent in the medical mission setting", which was accepted by the journal Surgery. As a certified transcriber, Ana assisted with the transcription of interviews in addition to translation from Spanish to English and data preparation. In 2017, Ana received the Anne G. Crowe Spirit Award in recognition of her outstanding contributions to the mission and vision of the School of Medicine. She holds a certificate in research administration from Stanford University and a diploma in Medical Administration from Bryman College.

Publications

Lost in translation: Informed consent in the medical mission setting. Surgery Sceats, L. A., Morris, A. M., Narayan, R. R., Mezynski, A., Woo, R. K., Yang, G. P. 2018 More

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Informed consent is a fundamental tenet of ethical care, but even under favorable conditions, patient comprehension of consent conversations may be limited. Little is known about providing informed consent in more uncertain situations such as medical missions. We sought to examine the informed consent process in the medical mission setting.METHODS: We studied informed consent for adult patients undergoing inguinal herniorrhaphy during a medical mission to Guatemala using a convergent mixed-methods design. We audiotaped informed consents during preoperative visits and immediately conducted separate surveys to elicit comprehension of risks. Informed consent conversations and survey responses were translated and transcribed. We used descriptive statistics to examine informed consent content, including information provided by surgeon, the translation of information, and patient comprehension, and used thematic analysis to examine the consent process.RESULTS: Thirteen adult patients (median age 53 years, 69% male) participated. Surgeons conveyed 4 standard risks in 10 out of 13 encounters (77%); all 4 risks were translated to patients in 10 out of 13 encounters (77%). No patient could recall all 4 risks. Qualitative themes regarding the informed consent process included limited physician language skills, verbal domination by physicians and interpreters, and mistranslation of risks. Patients relied on faith and prior or vicarious experiences to qualify surgical risks instead of consent conversations. Many patients restated surgical instructions when asked about risks.CONCLUSION: Despite physicians' attempts to provide informed consent, medical mission patients did not comprehend surgical risks. Our data reveal a critical need to develop more effective methods for communicating surgical risks during medical missions.

View details for PubMedID 30061041

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