University of Wisconsin–Madison
Department of Surgery
University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health

Investigators

  • Daniel Abbott, MD

    Daniel Abbott is a Surgical Oncologist and an Associate Professor of Surgery at the University of Wisconsin. Dr. Abbott’s research focuses on efficiency and cost-effectiveness in the care of our cancer patients. Most specifically, he is interested in implementing and broadening the use of telehealth to maximize resource utilization and patient satisfaction. He is currently submitting a Career Development Award through the VA system and working to broaden the scope of telehealth in the non-VA population.

    Dr. Abbott’s faculty profile

    Research Team
  • Ahmed Afifi, MD

    Ahmed M. Afifi, MD, joined the faculty of the University of Wisconsin’s Division of Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery in 2011, after completing subspecialty fellowships at the Cleveland Clinic (cosmetic and body contouring surgery), the University of New Mexico (hand and microsurgery), and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (craniofacial surgery). His research interests include breast reconstruction, cosmetic surgery and the use of qualitative methods to evaluate outcomes of migraine and headache surgery.

    Dr. Afifi’s faculty profile

    Grant Funding
    • A Qualitative Assessment of Patients’ Perceptions of and Outcomes after Migraine Surgery.
      • UW Department of Surgery pilot grant
      • Monetary amount: $25,000
    Research Team
    • Jacqueline Israel MD
    • Nicole Brys MPH
    • Ahmed Salem MD
    • Brooke Anderson MSN, RN
    • Alaa Abd-Elsayed MD
    • Jeremy Smith MD, FACP
  • Kyla Bennett, MD
  • Seth Dailey, MD

    Seth H. Dailey, MD, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Surgery at the University of Wisconsin. He received his medical degree from New York University and completed his residency in otolaryngology-head and neck surgery at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. He received fellowship training in Laryngology at Harvard Medical School. His research interests include epidemiology of voice disorders and comparative outcomes in procedures for laryngeal disease.

    Dr. Dailey’s faculty profile

  • Martin Dib, MD

    Dr. Martin Dib is a Transplant Surgeon and Assistant Professor of Surgery at the University of Wisconsin. Dr. Dib earned his MD from University of Chile. He completed a Research Fellowship in Transplant Surgery and Liver Regeneration at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School and stayed at the same institution for Surgical Residency and graduated as Chief Resident of Surgery at Harvard. His Transplant Fellowship training was completed at University of Toronto. While in Toronto he trained and gained certification in Abdominal Transplant, Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery. At the largest Living Donor Liver Transplant Program in North America, he developed a particular interest in the field. His major clinical interests include Liver, Live Donor Liver, Pediatric Liver, Pancreas, Kidney and Live Donor Kidney Transplantation, as well as Hepatobiliary Surgery. He also serves as a liver surgeon at the William S. Middleton Memorial Veterans Hospital.

    Dr. Dib’s research focuses on clinical effectiveness and analysis of large databases with the aim to expand organ utilization for transplant patients. Most specifically, his research includes the evaluation of recent changes in organ allocation policy, geographical disparities in transplantation, identification of new risk models for graft failure, and analysis of cost-effectiveness for nonstandard liver donors to increase the donor pool. He is currently working on the survival advantage and ethical dilemmas associated with Live Donor Liver Transplantation (LDLT). Dr. Dib is completing a Masters Degree in Health Services and Outcomes Research.

    Dr. Dib’s faculty profile

  • David Francis
  • Luke M. Funk, MD, MPH

    Luke Funk MD, MPH is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Surgery at the University of Wisconsin. He received his medical degree from Loyola University Stritch School of Medicine and Master of Public Health degree from the Harvard School of Public Health. He completed his general surgery residency at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. His fellowship training in minimally invasive in bariatric surgery was completed at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. His research interests are focused on obesity treatment and the decision-making involved in the care of obese patients.

    Dr. Funk’s faculty profile

    Grant Funding
    • “Understanding Primary Care Physician Perspectives on Severe Obesity”
      • American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery (ASMBS) research grant
      • Monetary amount: $25,000
    • “Identifying and Addressing Barriers to Bariatric Surgery within VA”*
      • VA Health Services Research and Development Career Development Award (CDA)
      • Monetary Amount: $1.37 million
    Research Team
  • Catharine Garland, MD
  • Caprice Greenberg, MD, MPH

    Dr. Greenberg is a tenured Professor of Surgery and the Morgridge Distinguished Chair in Health Services Research at the University of Wisconsin, where she is the Director of the Wisconsin Surgical Outcomes Research (WiSOR) Program. Her research focuses on the quality and safety of surgical care and in particular aims to: 1) improve operative performance and patient safety; and 2) decrease practice variation and engage patients and other stakeholders in promoting high quality surgical care in cancer. Her team is developing approaches for video capture and analysis to facilitate the improvement quality, safety, and effectiveness in surgical care, primarily through the development and implementation of evidence-based initiatives. For example, several projects aim to develop an approach to Surgical Coaching for the continued professional development of surgeons in practice. She also studies practice patterns, quality of care and comparative effectiveness in surgical oncology, particularly related to breast cancer. Her research has been funded by PCORI, NCI, AHRQ, and several foundations. She co-chairs the Cancer Care Delivery Research Committee of the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology Network, is a founding member and past President of Surgical Outcomes Club and currently serves as the President-Elect of the Association for Academic Surgery.

    Dr. Greenberg’s Faculty Profile

    Research Team
    • Sudha Pavuluri Quamme, MD MS
    • Jessica Schumacher, PhD, MS
    • Nicole Brys, MPH
    • Taiwo Adesoye, MD
    • Lane Frasier, MD
    • Heather Beasley, PhD
    Grant Funding
    • “The Wisconsin Surgical Coaching Program”
      • PERC Wisconsin Partnership Program Education and Research Committee
      • Monetary amount: $153,859 (annual direct)
    • “Post-Treatment Surveillance in Breast Cancer: Bringing CER to the Alliance”
      • PCORI CE-1304-6543
      • Monetary amount: $646,890 (annual direct)
    • “Patient Centered Risk Stratified Surveillance After Curative Resection of
      Colorectal Cancer”

      • CE-1304-6855 Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) (Chang, PI)
      • Monetary amount: $487,878 (annual direct)
    • “Impact of Radiation Therapy on Breast Conservation in DCIS”
      • Brigham and Women’s Hospital Subcontract
      • Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) (Punglia, PI)
      • Monetary amount:$21,120 (annual direct)
    • “National Clinical Trials Network Research at the University of Wisconsin”
      • 1 U10CA180799-01 (PI: Kahl/ Kushner/Ritter/Wilke) NIH/NCI
      • Monetary amount: $408,336 (annual direct)
    • “Improving the Effectiveness of Routine Surveillance Following
      Lung Cancer Resection”

      • CE-1306-00727 Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) (Kozower, PI)
      • Monetary amount:$575,705 (annual direct)
    • “Assuring and Defining Outcomes through Procedural Training (ADOPT) “
      • Covidien
      • Monetary amount: $170,000(annual direct)
    • “AAS Courses to Increase Women and Minorities in Academic Surgery”
      • 2R13GM095236-03 NIH/NIGMS
      • Monetary amount: $10,000 (annual direct)
    • “A Coaching Intervention to Improve Technical Quality in Bariatric Surgery”
      • R01DK101423 University of Michigan Subcontract NIH R01 (Dimick/Greenberg, PIs)
      • Monetary amount: $86,644 (annual direct)
  • Jacob Greenberg, MD, EdM

    Dr. Greenberg is an associate professor of surgery at the University of Wisconsin in the section of Minimally Invasive and Bariatric Surgery. His research focuses on surgical education, clinical research in hernia care, and procedural adoption of new techniques and technologies.

    Dr. Greenberg’s faculty profile

  • Angela Ingraham, MD, MS

    Dr. Ingraham is an Assistant Professor of Surgery at the University of Wisconsin and an Investigator in the Wisconsin Surgical Outcomes Research (WiSOR) Program. She is developing a health services research program with an emphasis on improving care and outcomes of emergency general surgery (EGS) patients, including research on quality of care, practice patterns, and policy evaluation. Prior to coming to UW, she completed a two-year full-time research fellowship during her General Surgery residency at the American College of Surgeons Clinical Scholars in Residence Program and a Master of Science in Clinical Investigation at Northwestern University. She continued her research during her two-year fellowship in Trauma and Acute Care Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh. Her research focuses on examining outcomes after EGS procedures at the patient and hospital levels, critically evaluating the methods through which hospital performance is measured, and disseminating proven methods in quality improvement.

    Her research has been funded by the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma as well as the University of Wisconsin. She serves on the Program and Communication Committees in the Association for Academic Surgery. She also serves as the Liaison between the American College of Surgeons Surgical Research Committee and the Resident and Associate Society.

    Dr. Ingraham’s faculty profile

    Research Team
  • Hee Soo Jung, MD

    Dr. Hee Soo Jung is an Assistant Professor of Surgery at the University of Wisconsin. He received his medical degree from the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. He completed his general surgery residency at Saint Louis University and his surgical critical care fellowship at the University of Michigan. He is board-certified in surgery and surgical critical care.

    Dr. Jung’s research focuses on reducing preventable errors in trauma care through the development of novel educational and assessment methodologies. His team currently studies interdisciplinary team communication and its impact on patient care. He also investigates clinical outcomes in trauma, emergency general surgery and critical care.

    Dr. Jung’s faculty profile

    Grant Funding
    • The Use of Epistemic Network Analysis to Evaluate Non-technical Skills Performance in Trauma Simulation Education
      • National Board of Medical Examiners Edward J. Stemmler Medical Education Research Fund
      • Monetary Amount: $150,000
    Research Team
  • Jonathan Kohler, MD

    Dr. Jonathan E. Kohler MD, MA, is an assistant professor in the Division of Pediatric Surgery at the University of Wisconsin. He received his medical degree from the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine and completed residency training in general surgery at the University of Washington with a research fellowship during residency at Brigham & Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. His fellowship in pediatric surgery was completed at the University of Chicago. Dr. Kohler also holds a master’s degree in health communication from Emerson College in Boston, in collaboration with Tufts University’s School of Public Health.

    His research interests center on understanding barriers to behavior change and developing communications based interventions to surmount them, with a particular focus on improving the efficiency and effectiveness of specialist consultation.

    Dr. Kohler’s faculty profile

    Research Team
    • Randi Cartmill, MS
  • Elise Lawson, MD, MSHS
  • Amy Liepert, MD
  • Anne Lidor, MD, MPH
  • Heather Neuman, MD, MS

    Heather Neuman MD, MS, FACS is an Associate Professor in the Division of General Surgery Section of Breast/Melanoma at the University of Wisconsin. She earned her BS with Honors from the University of Wisconsin LaCrosse, and then she attended the University Pittsburgh School of Medicine for her Medical Degree. Her residency was completed at the University of North Carolina, where she served as the Administrative Chief Resident. She obtained a Master’s degree in Health Services Research at Weill Cornell Graduate School before completing her clinical surgical oncology fellowship at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Dr. Neuman’s research focuses on patient-oriented clinical outcomes including patient decision-making, quality of life and survivorship. Her primary research uses mixed methods to improve the quality and efficiency of breast cancer follow-up provided to breast cancer survivors. Secondary research interests include the use of decision aids to improve patient decision-making surrounding breast cancer surgery. Additionally, she is the principle investigator for a number of surgical clinical trials focused on melanoma.

    Dr. Neuman’s faculty profile

    Grant Funding
    • “Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women’s Health Scholar Factors Influencing Follow-up Care for Breast Cancer Survivors”
      • NIH K12 HD055894
      • Monetary amount: $234,064
    Research Team
  • Susan Pitt, MD, MPHS

    Susan Pitt, MD, MPHS, is an assistant professor in the Department of Surgery at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. She received her medical degree from the Medical College of Wisconsin, and her Master of Population Health Science at Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine (WUSM). Her general surgery residency also was completed at WUSM where she served as an administrative chief resident. Her fellowship training in endocrine surgery was completed at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. She also completed an endocrine surgery research fellowship with Dr. Herb Chen in the Department of Surgery at the University of Wisconsin.

    Dr. Pitt’s research utilizes both quantitative and qualitative techniques to investigate areas of treatment uncertainty in endocrine surgery, such as indeterminate thyroid nodules or papillary microcarcinomas. She is interested in developing methods to facilitate shared decision-making and informed consent communication between patients and surgeons. In addition, she conducts comparative effectiveness research analyzing various treatment strategies and national trends in surgical management of endocrine disorders, which include thyroid, parathyroid, and adrenal diseases.

    Dr. Pitt’s faculty profile

    Research Team
  • John Scarborough, MD
  • David Schneider, MD, MS

    David F. Schneider, MD, MS is an Assistant Professor in the Division of General Surgery at the University of Wisconsin. Within the Section of Endocrine Surgery, he also serves as the Director of Endocrine Surgery Research. His research group is broadly interested in improving decision-making for surgical patients. Specifically, they use informatics tools to automate and improve decision-making at the point of care. Dr. Schneider is funded via the University of Wisconsin CTSA’s KL2 program to use natural language processing and machine learning tools to improve the diagnosis and treatment of indeterminate thyroid nodules. This research extracts critical features about thyroid nodules from the electronic medical record (EMR) in order to train algorithms that can predict whether a given nodule is cancerous or benign. This technology unlocks data that is otherwise “hidden” in parts of the EMR that cannot be readily converted into data for research.

    Using similar technology, Dr. Schneider and his team are also analyzing patient language to automatically predict their health-related quality of life scores. Once perfected, these algorithms can derive a patient’s quality of life score from normal conversation rather than cumbersome surveys.

    Dr. Schneider’s research team uses machine learning to make important predictions for patients with endocrine diseases. Examples include methods to automatically diagnose primary hyperparathyroidism from lab values found in the EMR, algorithms to improve postoperative thyroid hormone dosing, or streamlining the imaging workup for hyperparathyroidism.

    The next phase of their work will characterize patterns of care in thyroid nodular disease and combine that EMR data with patient-reported outcomes to create a novel clinical decision support tools that enable patients to see longitudinal risks and benefits of any treatment decision.

    Dr. Schneider’s faculty profile

    Grant Funding
    • Machine Learning for Improved Treatment Selection of
      Indeterminate Thyroid Nodules

      • KL2 Scholars Program
      • NIH UL1TR000427 (UW CTSA) and NIH KL2TR000428
    • Central Surgical Association Foundation Turcotte Enrichment Grant
      • Central Surgical Association Foundation
      • Monetary amount: $10,000
    • Cancer Control Pilot Grant
      • University of Wisconsin Carbone Cancer Center
      • Monetary amount: $25,000
    Research Team
    • Joe Imbus, MD (Surgical Resident)
  • Margaret Schwarze, MD, MPP, FACS

    Gretchen Schwarze, MD, MPP is an Associate Professor in the Division of Vascular Surgery at the University of Wisconsin. Dr. Schwarze is a board-certified vascular surgeon and medical ethicist. She received her medical degree from Harvard Medical School and master’s degree in public policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government. She completed residency at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. Her fellowship training in vascular surgery and clinical ethics was done at the University of Chicago Hospital and Clinics. Her research focuses on improving communication between older patients and their doctors so that patients can make decisions that align with their values, preferences and goals.

    Dr. Schwarze’s faculty profile

    Dr. Schwarze’s Research Program: The Patient Preferences Project

    Grant Funding
    • “Navigating High Risk Surgery: Empowering Older Adults to Ask Questions that Inform Decisions about Surgical Treatment”
      • PCORI CDR-1502-27462
      • Monetary amount: $2,109,998
    • “Prevention of postoperative conflict about life supporting therapy by improving preoperative communication with older patients”
      • KL2, UW CTSA [UL1TR000427] (NCATS/NIH)
      • Monetary amount: $266,000
    • “A Communication Tool to Assist Older Adults Making Difficult Surgical Decisions”
      • NIA 1R03AG047920 GEMSSTAR
      • Monetary amount: $229,500
    • “Engaging Stakeholders to Develop a Patient Navigation Tool for High Risk Surgery”
      • ICTR PCOR
      • Monetary amount: $100,000
    • American Geriatrics Society and the Society for Vascular Surgery
      • Jahnigen Career Development Award
      • Monetary Award: $50,000
    Research Team
  • Rebecca S. Sippel, MD, FACS

    Rebecca S. Sippel, MD is an Associate Professor of Surgery, Chief of Endocrine Surgery, and Endocrine Surgery Fellowship Director in the Division of General Surgery at the University of Wisconsin. She received her medical degree from Washington University School of Medicine. She completed residency and a 2 year research fellowship at the University of Wisconsin Hospitals and Clinics. Dr. Sippel completed her fellowship training in endocrine surgery at the University of California in San Francisco, California. Her research interests are in clinical and patient centered research. Her research program is working on optimizing the treatment of patients with endocrine disorders and she has a special interest in improving the treatment of thyroid cancer. She currently is PI on an NIHfunded randomized controlled trial looking at the role of prophylactic central neck dissection in the treatment of thyroid cancer. This trial is carefully examining the risks of surgical intervention and includes a qualitative aim focused on the impact of surgery on patient quality of life. Dr. Sippel is also interested in improving patient education and decision making related to the treatment of Graves’ Disease.

    Dr. Sippel’s faculty profile

    Grant Funding
    • “Central Neck Dissection in Patients with Clinical Node Negative Thyroid Cancer”
      • NIH 1R01CA176911-01A1
      • Monetary amount: $1,764,129
    Research Team
    • Liz Wendt
    • Cameron MacDonald,PhD
    • Nadine Connor, PhD
    • Dawn Elfenbein, MD, MPH
    • Courtney Balentine, MD
  • Corrine Voils, PhD

    Dr. Voils is a Research Career Scientist at the William S Middleton Memorial Veterans Hospital and Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation Professor of Surgery at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine & Public Health. She is the Scientific Director of the Wisconsin Surgical Outcomes Research program, Director of Faculty Development for the Department of Surgery, and the KL2 director at the Institute for Clinical and Translational Research. Prior to moving to UW in 2017, she was a Research Career Scientist in the Center for Health Services Research in Primary Care at the Durham VA Medical Center and a Professor of Medicine at Duke University Medical Center. Dr. Voils is an experimental social psychologist with training with 17 years of professional research experience in health services research. Her research, funded by VA Health Services Research & Development and National Institutes of Health, includes randomized trials of health services interventions targeting patients, alone or in a dyad, or healthcare providers. These interventions have focused on adherence to lifestyle behaviors (e.g., for weight management) or incorporating genomic/genetic information into healthcare. In recognition of her expertise in behavioral interventions, she has been faculty at the OBSSR/NHLBI Summer Institute for Randomized Behavioral Interventions since 2011, where she lectures on dosing of behavioral interventions and mentors junior faculty and postdoctoral fellows. She is a Fellow of the Society for Behavioral Medicine.

    Dr. Voil’s Faculty Profile

    Dr. Voil’s Research Lab

  • Sharon Weber, MD, FACS

    Dr. Weber specializes in benign and malignant disorders of the liver, pancreas and bile duct, in addition to gastric cancer, melanoma, and sarcoma. Dr. Weber is actively involved in minimally invasive approaches to cancer treatment, including both laparoscopic pancreas and liver surgery. She has been an invited speaker and moderator at many national meetings, including the American College of Surgeons (ACS), the Americas Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Association (AHPBA), Society of Surgical Oncology (SSO), and Society of University Surgeons (SUS). She serves on the Executive Council of the Society for Surgery of the Alimentary Tract (SSAT), Society of Surgical Oncology (SSO), SUS, and AHPBA, and is currently President of the SUS. In addition, she is the national Director for the NSQIP-Oncology Collaborative. Dr. Weber’s research interests include mixed methods evaluation of risk factors for readmission using a systems engineering approach with a focus on the transition of care and outcomes research evaluating preoperative predictors of postoperative complications.

    Dr. Weber’s faculty profile

    Grant Funding
    • “Incorporating the Patient Perspective to Reduce Readmission
      after Complex Surgery”

      • AHRQ K18HS022446
      • Monetary amount: $370,196
    Research Team
  • Aaron Wieland, MD
  • Emily Winslow, MD, FACS

    Dr. Emily Winslow is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Surgery. She earned her BA at Dartmouth, and then attended Harvard Medical School. She completed her general surgery residency at Washington University and an NIH-sponsored research fellowship in surgical oncology, and most recently received her Master’s Degree in Clinical Investigation at the Institute for Clinical and Translational Research. Dr. Winslow’s research interests are largely clinical and centered around patients with pancreatic cancer neuroendocrine tumors, and colorectal cancer metastatic to the liver. In addition, she is interested in outcomes research in patients with hepatobiliary malignancies, and studies involving patient centered outcomes.

    Dr. Winslow’s faculty profile

    Grant Funding
    • A Biologic Study of Resveratrol’s Effects on Notch-1 Signaling in Patients with Low Grade Neuroendocrine Tumors
      • University of Wisconsin Carbone Cancer Center | Investigator Initiated Trials Grant
      • Monetary amount: $50,000
    • The detection of liver metastases with Gadoextic Acid-Enhanced Magnetic Resonance Imaging: A study of Radiographic-Pathologic Correlation
      • Society of Surgeons of the Alimentary Tract | Career Development Award for Clinical/Outcomes/Education Research
      • Monetary amount: $40,000
    Research Team
    • Linda Cherney-Stafford

WiSOR