Faculty Mentors

Faculty Mentors

Many of our faculty are interested in working with residents to develop their research interests and projects.  Residents have an opportunity to study throughout their residency training with the Bonica Scholars Program or in the Residency Research Track for 6 months during the CA3 year.

Please consult with your advisor and/or program directors for further guidance.

  • Evaluating the use of routine video recording for identification of specific intraoperative hazards-computerized perioperative checklists use, drug administration safety, anesthesia infection control, distraction, noise level and sentinel events

Srdjan Jelacic, MD, FASE

 

  • (1) Utilizing machine learning and computer vision we aim to detect the presence of syringes, identify their contents and report back to the clinician and the medical record to improve patient safety and record keeping (2) Improve understanding of neuromuscular blockade using a wide variety of measurement tools (3) Testing of a wireless localization tool to eliminate the need to move pressure transducer height with every change in patient position

Kelly Michaelsen, MD, PhD

  • PPIQSO is a technical center focused on improving perioperative and pain quality of care, patient safety and outcome applying informatics and technology solutions. The Center includes engineering and clinical anesthesiology faculty as well as database and software programmers.
  • Opportunities: Literature review, statistical analysis, manuscript preparation opportunities

Vikas O’Reilly-Shah, MD, PhD, Director 

 

  • Quality improvement and outcomes

Daniel Low, MD, MBBS

 

  • (1) Understanding the mechanism of action of volatile anesthetics, using a mouse model of mitochondrial dysfunction (2) Investigating the pathways that control anesthetic induced neurotoxicity in early development

Philip Morgan, MD

 

(1) What is the emotional experience of emergence from general anesthesia? 
(2) How does the experience of stress, or pain, modify emergence and social behavior? 
(3) What is the neurobiology of stress and delirium across the lifespan?
Importantly, how can we apply our preclinical knowledge to improving clinical outcomes?

Mitra Heshmati, MD, PhD

 

  • Evaluating the incidence of hypophosphatemia and its effect on serum lactate in surgery on cardiopulmonary bypass

Dominik Steck, MD

 

  • (1) Chronic pain disorders (2) Mechanisms of pain (3) Molecular profiling

Michele Curatolo, MD, PhD

 

  • (1) The intersection of pain and addiction, (2) The use of Buprenorphine for acute and chronic pain, (3) Interactive online didactics to promote interinstitutional collaboration and learning

Rebecca Dale, DO

 

  • Ongoing studies & clinical studies; older adults and osteoarthritis; please inquire

Kushang Patel, PhD

 

  • (1) Case Report and Review; (2) Clinical outcomes research

Jiang Wu, MD

  • (1) Pediatric chronic pain; (2) psychosocial intervention; (3) interrelationship of sleep and pain [multiple ongoing studies and clinical trials – please inquire]

Tonya Palermo, PhD

 

  • Pain and sleep:  case report & review; clinical outcomes research

See Wan Tham, MBBS

 

  • Local datasets (UWMC/HMC) evaluating palliative care metrics and hospital utilization in seriously ill patients

Nita Khandelwal, MD, MS

 

  • Studies involving SAH, TBI, neuromonitoring, hemodynamic support, neuroanesthesia and neurocritical care outcomes.

Abhijit Lele, MBBS, MD, MS

  • (1) The effect of anesthetics on insulin like Growth factor-1 mediated wound healing in the aged, (2) Clinical and radiological frailty assessment to direct interventions and determine outcomes in the aged

Itay Bentov, MD

  • (1) Multiple studies, on outcomes after TBI among Hispanic children, (2) Disparities research

Nathalia Jimenez, MD, MPH

 

  • (1) Anesthesia informed consent and parental understanding, (2) QI project on truth-telling: when parents request we withhold information from their children about surgery, (3) Analyzing racial/ethnic disparities in delivery of anesthesia care, in collaboration with Vikas O’Reilly-Shah and Nathalia Jimenez, (4) Developing and assessing the impact of EDI curriculum for residents and faculty

Katherine Gentry, MD

  • (1) Study the role of the protein synthesis machinery on sensitivity to hypoxic cellular injury with genetic, proteomic, and molecular biology techniques, (2) Study the role of paracrine signals from one cell type on hypoxic sensitivity of another cell type with genetic and molecular biology techniques, (3) Study the effects of hypoxia on mitochondrial protein folding homeostasis with genetic, microscopic, and molecular biology techniques

Michael Crowder, MD, PhD

 

  • (1) Our lab focuses on metabolomics, the study of metabolism using advanced analytical methods. We are interested in a variety of areas related to anesthesia – hypoxia: brain or peripheral, anesthetic: more broadly drug response, cardiac function as measured through metabolism, mitochondrial status and response, etc.

Daniel Raftery, PhD

 

  • (1) Study the effects of inhalational anesthetics on donor liver mitochondrial function and the outcome of transplant, (2) Mitochondrial function of the peripheral blood mononucleated cells (PBMC) as a determinant of inflammatory response

Rong Tian, MD, PhD

 

  • (1) Investigating the link between metabolic stress, redox imbalance, and hyper-active mitochondrial dynamics in metabolic heart disease, (2) Elucidating the new regulatory mechanisms for energy metabolism in the heart and provide new targets for treating heart failure, (3) Determination of mitochondrial calcium regulation in the diseased heart and how it contributes to the development of heart hypertrophy and failure.

Wang Wang, MD, PhD

 

  • (1) Acute Ischemic Stroke, (2) Transcranial Doppler (TCD) ultrasonography, (3) perioperative sleep, (4) quality measures in neuroanesthesia

Deepak Sharma, MBBS, MD, DM

 

  • (1) Adult traumatic brain injury care and outcomes, (2) Return to Learn after concussion, (3) Pediatric traumatic brain injury guideline adherence and outcomes, (4) Violence prevention in communities, (5) Improving equitable data collection in injury and violence data collection, (6) Trauma transfusion, (7) Using machine learning to predict perioperative deterioration

Monica Vavilala, MD

  • (1) Next-gen Opto-GPCRs: spatiotemporal simulation of neuromodulator signaling, (2) Dissecting Dynorphin-Kappa Opioid Mediated Reinstatement of Nicotine Preference, (3) Decoding Locus Coeruleus Neural Circuits and Signaling in Negative Affect,
  • Opportunities include bench work, manuscript preparation, study design, statistical analysis, data entry and literature review

Michael Bruchas, PhD

 

  • Neural circuits of motivation and reward processing – bench work

Garret Stuber, PhD

 

(1) What is the emotional experience of emergence from general anesthesia? 
(2) How does the experience of stress, or pain, modify emergence and social behavior? 
(3) What is the neurobiology of stress and delirium across the lifespan?
Importantly, how can we apply our preclinical knowledge to improving clinical outcomes?

Mitra Heshmati, MD, PhD

  • (1) Case reports; (2) Clinical outcomes research; (3) New project: app development to send ERAS protocol reminders and track recovery measures

Laurent Bollag, MD

  • (1) Perioperative Anxiety in Pediatric Surgery, (2) Opiate free pediatric anesthesia, (3) Quality improvement and standardized care in pediatric ambulatory anesthesia, (4) Pediatric anesthesia topics for SPA Global Health Lecture Series (will mentor new topics)

David Liston, MD

 

  • (1) PPiQSO & Pediatric Data Science – Literature review, statistical analysis, manuscript preparation opportunities

Vikas O’Reilly-Shah, MD, PhD

 

  • (1) Pediatric chronic pain;
    (2) psychosocial intervention;
    (3) interrelationship of sleep and pain
    [multiple ongoing studies and clinical trials – please inquire]

Tonya Palermo, PhD

 

  • (1) Return to Learn after concussion, (2) Pediatric traumatic brain injury guideline adherence and outcomes, (3) Violence prevention in communities, (4) Improving equitable data collection in injury and violence data collection, (5) Trauma transfusion, (6) Using machine learning to predict perioperative deterioration

Monica Vavilala, MD

 

  • Pediatric regional anesthesiology- please inquire

Eliot Grigg, MD

Agnes Hunyady, MD

  • Lumbar plexus block case series – manuscript preparation and literature review

Sean Flack, MD

 

  • BID Enoxaparin with peripheral nerve catheters-Literature Review and Manuscript Preparation

Drew Walters, MD

Vanessa Loland, MD

Liz Martin, MD

  • (1) Investigation of immediate death of recipient after transplant due to pulmonary embolism
    (2) Recipient and donor characteristics associated with increased risk for de novo cancer in liver transplant
    (3) Size-mismatch between donor and recipient, and associated outcome
    (4) Pulmonary function and post-transplant outcome
    (5) Hepato-pulmonary syndrome in liver transplantation
    (6) Immediate post-transplant mortality study
    (7) Other clinical retrospective studies related to kidney/liver/pancreas transplant

Kyota Fukuzawa, MD