On Thursday, Jan. 29, the Department of Surgery celebrated the 17th Annual Research Summit. The theme of this year’s summit was “Research Without Borders.”
Our keynote speaker was Dr. Sandra Wong, Dean of Emory University School of Medicine and Chief Academic Officer of Emory Healthcare. She spoke about “Better Health and Healthcare Through Research.”
The rest of the morning was dedicated to highlighting the extraordinary research happening within the department. Out of the more than 115 abstracts submitted, 10 were selected for oral presentations. The morning wrapped up with a poster session featuring 65 poster presentations that demonstrated the vast research happening within the department.
The afternoon session started with a skills building seminar about “AI as a Productivity Assistant.” Dr. Ben Rush, an Informatics Data Scientist in the UW Department of Radiology, and Dr. Jen Merems, a Scientific Editor in the Institute for Clinical and Translational Research, gave a crash-course on how generative AI can be customized to best support research productivity, including scientific writing and project management. The final session of the day was a Shark Tank Pitch Competition. Six people from the Department of Surgery pitched their innovative surgical research ideas in front an expert panel of “sharks” and philanthropists. The winner of the Shark Tank Pitch Competition, and start-up funding of $25,000, was Alexandra Helbing, MD, a member of Dr. Alexander Chiu’s Lab, who presented “Paging Dr. Chatbot: Automating Follow-Up for Incidental Adrenal Nodules.”
As a part of the summit, several awards were given to recognize excellence in posters, presentations, and images. The 2026 award winners were:
- Layton F. Rikkers, MD Best Basic or Translational Oral Presentation Award: Christopher DeCorte
- Louis C. Bernhardt, MD Best Clinical, Health Services or Education Oral Presentation Award: Daniel Rice
- Debra A. Hullet, PhD Best Poster Award: Grace Zhu, PhD
- K. Craig Kent, MD Best Poster Award, Student: Kate Lauer, MD
- James “Jim” Southard, PhD Best Surgery Science Image Award: M. Kristine Carbullido, MD
Thank you to all of our presenters, our judges, and all who attended.
Special thanks to our Research Summit planning committee: Co-Chairs Dr. Mehreen Kisat and Dr. Patrick Varley, as well as committee members Hannah Clark, Dr. Luke Funk, Dr. Angela Gibson, Sally Gray, Karen Lynch, Bhabna Pati, JoAnne Vaccaro and Jennifer Zellner
