With an emphasis on outcomes, quality, and cost, health services research is becoming essential to guiding patient care and redefining best practices in academic surgery. WiSOR is an interdisciplinary, multi-investigator research program that supports a wide variety of outcomes-focused research, including comparative effectiveness research, qualitative research (particularly involving patient-provider interactions), performance and safety in surgical care, health care disparities, patterns of care, quality of life, and decision analysis.
DR. DAVID FRANCIS’ LAB: DEVELOPING NOVEL TREATMENTS FOR VOCAL CORD PARALYSIS
Dr. Francis’ research focuses on a patient-centered approach to personalizing and improving the care of patients with ear, nose, and throat disorders. His primary areas of study involve, understanding the causes of geographic variations in care, promoting prevention of iatrogenic vocal fold paralysis, understanding the patient experience of living with unilateral vocal fold paralysis, development of new measurement tools to measure disability related to unilateral vocal fold paralysis, and developing novel treatments and comparing their effectiveness in improving the care of patients with unilateral vocal fold paralysis.
DR. LUKE FUNK’S LAB: ELIMINATING BARRIERS TO OBESITY CARE
Dr. Funk’s research interests are focused on improving the health of adults with obesity by identifying and eliminating barriers to evidence-based obesity care. He has developed an educational intervention to address these barriers in U.S. Veterans and is investigating disparities in bariatric surgery outcomes. His team is also examining data from the electronic health record to understand longitudinal associations between obesity, weight changes, and obesity-related comorbidities, including cancer.
DR. HEATHER NEUMAN’S LAB: IMPROVING CARE FOR BREAST CANCER SURVIVORS
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.
Dr. Gretchen Schwarze’s Lab: The Patient Preferences Project: Better Communication for Surgical Decision Making
Dr. Schwarze’s work, The Patient Preferences Project, helps older 
patients who are considering major surgery make decisions that are in line with their values, goals and preferences. The Patient Preferences Project team develops tools to help patients and surgeons communicate more clearly before surgery, so that patients can better understand what their lives might look like after surgery.
Dr. Ben Zarzaur’s Lab: Improving Quality of Life for Injured and Acutely Ill Patients
Dr. Zarzaur is interested in long-term, patient-centered outcomes for those who have suffered injury or an acute surgical illness. He and his multi-disciplinary team have developed an innovative and scalable collaborative care model that is focused on improving the long-term functional ability and quality of life of these patients.