The 2025 American College of Surgeons (ACS) Clinical Congress took place Oct. 2-7 in Chicago. The Clinical Congress is designed to provide individuals with a wide range of learning opportunities, activities, and experiences that will match their educational and professional development needs. Wisconsin Surgery faculty, trainees, and researchers attended and presented at the Clinical Congress.
The Department of Surgery had seven faculty members present at the 2025 Clinical Congress:
- Katherine Bakke, assistant professor in the Division of Acute Care and Regional General Surgery, presented “Non-Fellowship Trained General Surgery Faculty and Their Impact on Resident Career Plans at Graduation”
- David Harris, assistant professor in the Division of Minimally Invasive Surgery, presented “Impact of GLP-1 Medications on Surgical Care” and “The Great Bariatric Debate”
- Victoria Rendell, assistant professor in the Division of Minimally Invasive Surgery, presented “Minimally Invasive Parastomal Hernia Repair”
- Rebecca Minter, professor and Chair of the Department of Surgery, was a panelist for “Developing a Compensation Culture that Values and Respects All Contributions”
- Syed Nabeel Zafar, assistant professor in the Division of Surgical Oncology, presented “Overview of Global Surgery Research”
- Gretchen Schwarze, professor in the Division of Vascular Surgery, presented “Managing Uncertainty for High Stakes Surgical Decisions: Using Best Case/Worst Case”
- John Rectenwald, professor and Chair of the Division of Vascular Surgery, presented “IVS Filter Updates (Reference Preserve Trial)”
Seven residents in the Department of Surgery presented at the 2025 Clinical Congress:
- Kaleem Ahmed, general surgery resident, presented “Predicting Post-discharge Infection: A Machine Learning-driven Composite Outcome Model For Patients Undergoing Pancreatectomy”
- Patrick Carney, general surgery resident, presented “The DNAJB1-PRKACA Fusion Oncogene As A Novel Driver Of Biliary Oncocytic Neoplasms”
- Benjamin Cher, general surgery resident, presented “Morbidity After Lobectomy Versus Total Thyroidectomy For Differentiated Thyroid Cancer”
- Melanie Fritz, general surgery resident, presented “Clinical Momentum: An Observational Study Identifying Latent Forces Driving Surgical Interventions for Older Adults Near the End of Life” and “Testing the Effectiveness of ‘Best Case/Worst Case-ICU’ on Communication with Seriously Injured Older Adults in the Intensive Care Unit”
- Mujtaba Khalil, general surgery resident, presented “Prediction Model for Postoperative Recovery Trajectory and Loss of Independence Following Major Surgery”
- Kate Lauer, general surgery resident, presented “Incorporation Of Polygenic Risk Scores In Weight Gain Prediction Using The All Of Us Database”
- Karlie Zychowski, general surgery resident, presented “Surgeon reflections on the utility of auto fluoresence in thyroid and parathyroid surgery”
One Department of Surgery research specialist presented at the 2025 Clinical Congress:
- Maisam Ali, MBBS, research specialist, presented “Prognostic Value of Genetic Alterations on Outcomes in Resectable Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma” and “Impact of Social Determinants on Diagnosis and Treatment Delays for Resectable Pancreatic Cancer: Insights from a High-Volume Center”
