June 21 – SURGERY RESEARCH INSIGHT

SPOTLIGHT

UnitedHealth Group, R&D Grant Democratization of Bariatric Surgery

UnitedHealth Group, R&D have partnered with Drs. Irish, Pories, DeMaria, and Altieri for a multi-initiative grant entitled the Democratization of Bariatric Surgery.

This grant includes the specific aims of reassessment and evidence-based revision of the current rules for eligibility, development of an objective scoring method for staging T2D, and other expressions of the metabolic syndrome to provide a reliable methodology to assess levels of disease and efficacy of therapies, assess approaches to delivering operative care with greater efficiency but without loss of safety, improvement of education for patients, family, the public and providers regarding prevention, effective approaches to diets and exercise as well as the advantages and consequences of surgery.

The significance of this study is that it takes advantages of the opportunities now offered by the advances in bariatric surgery: More effective care for patients with type 2 diabetes and its chronic complications with improved efficiency and safety at lower cost.

NEW CIRRICULUM:

Resident Research Workshop

by Dr. Irish

We are excited to add depth to the surgical PGY4 research year!

This workshop provides basic instruction in all aspects of surgical research, including study start-up, developing the research question, developing the research plan, disseminating study results, and closing the study.

At the end of the workshop, residents will be asked to briefly discuss their research objective(s) along with key study milestones.

For residents entering their research year, participation in the workshop is mandatory.

Pennington Grand Rounds

by Reba Bullard

Dr. Walter Pories was invited to present Grand Rounds to the Pennington Biomedical Research Center on April 2021. His lecture entitled THE METABOLIC MYSTERY: HOW DOES AN INTESTINAL OPERATION REVERSE TYPE 2 DIABETES? broadcasted live.

Resident Research Spotlight: Lauren Arthur, MD

What’s your BIG THREE projects during your research year?

1. An educational lecture was sent to a referring hospital on imaging guidelines in pediatric trauma patients. After education is complete we are going to assess changes in adherence to guidelines and overall radiation dose received by these patients.We are hoping to improve adherence and decrease radiation exposure.
2. We are utilizing the trauma database to look at injuries since beginning of COVID lockdown to previous years and assessing where there has increases in injuries to adjust prevention.
3. Observing at SEDD and SID database for trauma patterns across the state to target injury prevention programs based on what is most commonly seen in each region.

ProActive Registry

by Peyton Garris

This study is actively enrolling patients.

ProActive Registry observes the medical journey of thousands of participants using Prospera, a simple blood test that measures the amount of donor DNA released by the transplanted organ to understand if the participant is experiencing active rejection.

Our site has enrolled 14 patients since Nov 2020! The enrollment goal is 75 patients.

Welcome Our New Team Members

Peyton Garris, BS
garrisp21@ecu.edu

Peyton joined our team as the Research Coordinator for the Division of Transplantation. She is working with the ProActive Registry and others.

Blake Savage, MS
savageb21@ecu.edu

Blake is the research coordinator for our grant with UnitedHealth Group, R & D to increase access and utilization of bariatric surgery.

Yuanyuan Fu, MA, MS
fuy21@ecu.edu

Yuanyuan is our statistician and programmer for the grant with UnitedHealth Group R & D. She will assist Dr. Irish in the analytics for this grant.

Trisha Aponte, BA
apontet21@ecu.edu

Trisha is our new Research Specialist that will manage the UMCIRB process for research projects and is an additional research resource for our department.

Update your NIH Biosketch!

by Reba Bullard

The NIH has announced major changes to the formatting of the NIH Biosketch. These changes are effective May 25, 2021. NIH Biosketeches are required by ECU for all funded research. Update yours today!

RESEARCH RESOURCES

Abstracts Accepted 2021

ASCO GI Symposium, Virtual.
Lim S, Hao S, Boyd B, Mitsakos A, Irish W, Parikh AA, Snyder RA. Opportunity Costs of Surgical Resection and Perioperative Chemotherapy for Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma.

ASMBS
Altieri MS, Irish W, DeMaria, EJ, Lensing C, Mehrotra S, Fallorina R, Derecho J, Pories W. Outcomes in Patients Undergoing Bariatric Surgery with Class I obesity.

American Society of Transplantation
Haisch CE, Irish W, Jones H, Leeser DB, Tuttle-Newhall JE, Rebellato LM.

From Surviving to Thriving: 30 Year Experience of Providing Access to Kidney Transplantation in the Rural South.

American Transplant Congress

Irish W, Fu Y, Ravindra KV, Leeser D, Haisch 1 C, Tuttle J (2021). The Effect of Delayed Graft Function on Early versus Late Mortality Following Kidney Transplantation. Department of Surgery, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC;Department of Mathematics, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC; Department of Surgery, Duke University,Durham, NC

Irish W, Fu Y, Ravindra KV, Leeser D, Vincenzo V, Connor A, Tuttle J (2021). Worsening Impact of Acute Kidney Rejection on Long Term Graft Survival from 2000 to 2014. East Carolina University, Greenville, NC; Duke University,Durham, NC

Leeser D, Osbun NC, Veale J, Waterman A, Thomas A. Right Kidneys and Kidneys with Complex Anatomy are More Likely to be Transplanted to the waiting List in a National Kidney Paired Donation Program

Leto D, Irish W, Haisch C,Tuttle B, Leeser D. Disparities Amongst Dialysis Patients in North Carolina: Decreased Access To Transplant in Lowest Health Rank Counties. Cape Fear Valley Medical Center, Fayetteville, NC, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC

GME Research Day, Greenville, NC 2021

Hao S, Snyder RA, Irish W, Parikh AA. (2020). Changes in the Proportion of Patients Presenting with Early StageColon Cancer over Time Among Medicaid Expansion and Non-expansion States

Hao S, Snyder RA, Irish W, Parikh AA. (2021). Explaining Disparities in Colon Cancer Treatment: Differential Effects of Health Insurance by Race.

Lim S, Hao S, Boyd B, Mitsakos A, Irish W, Parikh AA, Snyder RA. (2021). Opportunity Costs of Surgical Resection and Perioperative Chemotherapy for Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma.

Wercholuk A, Hao S, Takahashi C, Popowicz P, Sutton T, Walsh D (2021). Bringing Scholarly Distinction Tracks to General Surgery Residents.

GME Research Week
Takahashi, C., Irish, W., Parikh, A., Snyder. (October 2020). Racial Differences in Postoperative Venous Thromboembolism Rates Following Major Cancer Surgery Poster presented at East Carolina University BSOM

SAGES 2021
Takahashi, C., Meredith K. (September 2021). Robotic Pancreaticoduodenectomy with Replaced Right Hepatic (Video) at:SAGES 2021; Las Vegas, NV, USA.

Unified Quality Symposium 2021
Walsh DS, Irish W, G B, L G, Rodeberg DA, Longshore SW.

Validation of the NSQIP Pediatric Surgery Risk Assessment Calculator with Surgical Outcomes for a Rural Population.