Your Stories: Surgical Residents Make Strong Showing at Research Paper and Skills Competition

Surgical Residents watch as their colleague, Priscilla Lam, M.D. (PGY4), competes in the Skills Challenge.

For the last fifteen years, Saint Mary’s Surgical Residents have participated in the Annual Resident Research Paper and Skills Competition from the Connecticut Chapter of the American College of Surgeons (CTACS). This year, the team had a very strong showing for the event. Eight of Saint Mary’s Surgical Residents submitted eleven research papers. In addition, the Department of Surgery sponsored a surgical medical student’s research paper for presentation. After a full day of presentations and judging, our resident physicians came home with six prizes for their work.

Trauma Surgery

1^st Prize – Sean Burgwardt, D.O., with “Recovery from Multiple Organ Dysfunction Syndrome by Exome Therapy”

2^nd Prize – Nicole DiTommaso, M.D. with “Outcomes of Trauma Patients After the Legalization of Marijuana in a Community Hospital”

Sub-Specialties

2^nd Prize – Sean Burgwardt, D.O., with “The Characteristics of COVID-19 Patients with Pneumothorax and their Outcomes”

General Surgery

2^nd Prize – Shayan Ahmed, M.D., MPH with “Injectable Hydrogel Loaded with Modified Mesenchymal Stem Cells (MSCs) as a Potential Cure for Hind Limb Ischemia”

Clinical Oncology

1^st Prize – Nicole DiTommaso, M.D., with “Role of Circulating Tumor DNA in Early Detection of Breast Cancer Recurrence”

Bariatric & Metabolic Surgery

1^st Prize – Nicholas Druar, M.D., MPH with “Social Vulnerability of Bariatric Patient’s Postoperative Outcomes from a Single Community Bariatric Center”

Saint Mary’s Surgical Residency Training Program also assembled a solid three-resident team to compete in the Skills Competition against all the other residency programs in the state. In addition, Saint Mary’s was permitted to enter a medical student team in the competition for the first time. It was a very competitive year, with just one point separating the top finishers. The Saint Mary’s team finished third. The Surgical Residency Program has an impressive history of claiming first prize ten out of the fifteen years of competition.

The Department of Surgery and the Surgical Residency Program are extremely proud of the Resident Physicians and Surgical Medical Students.

Submitted by Gary Hodge, Department of General Surgery

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