Center for Surgical Trials and Evidence-based Practice (C-STEP)
The Center for Surgical Trials and Evidence-based Practice (C-STEP) at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) is a multi-disciplinary program designed to advance evidence-based practice in surgery by providing young faculty and surgical trainees with formal training in clinical research, mentorship, resources, and funding to perform high quality research.
The goals of C-STEP are:
- To foster and develop surgical faculty, staff, and trainees (including medical students) interested in clinical research.
- To advance the surgical evidence base and its application in clinical practice.
C-STEP provides program to medical students, surgical residents, and young surgical faculty including:
- Fellowship in Clinical Research
- Advanced Degree Programs
- Focused Research in Surgery for Medical Students
- Clinical Research Lecture Series
- Clinical Research Roundtables
- Pilot Grant Programs
- Surgical Journal Club
- Clinical Research Symposia
- Research Network
Fellowship in Research
Please visit the Center for Clinical Research and Evidenced-Based Medicine for more information regarding the Master’s Degree in Clinical Research.
To see a list of selected C-STEP publications, click here.
Summer Research Program
Lecture Series in Clinical Surgical Research
Every summer, the surgery and pediatric surgery faculty have MS-1 students work with them through the NIH-funded Summer Research Program offered through the medical school. Through C-STEP, we plan to augment the summer research program’s seminar series by providing a 9-week series on clinical research with a surgical focus. All students are welcome to attend. The lectures will be held at 2:00pm on Thursdays via Zoom.
2025 Lecture Schedule
May 29 – Intro and Developing a research hypothesis – what is a PICO question and how to develop one? (Lecturer: KuoJen Tsao)
June 5 – Now that I have a question, how do I do a literature search? (Lecturer: Sonya Fogg)
June 12 – How do I appraise the literature? (Lecturer: Dalya Ferguson)
June 20 – What study design should I use? (Lecturer: Jonah Stulberg)
June 26 – What basic statistics do I need to know? (Lecturer: David Meyer)
July 3 – Translational Research (Lecturer: Matthew Harting)
July 10 – Now that I have results, how do I write an abstract and make a poster presentation? (Lecturer: Kimberly Mankiewicz)
July 15 – How do I give a presentation? (Lecturer: Michael Wandling)
July 24 – Quick Shots 1
July 31 – Quick Shots 2
Our Residents
| Name | Graduation Year | Faculty Mentor | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jeannette Joly | 2026 | KuoJen Tsao, MD Pediatric Surgery |
|
| Anne Jeckovich | 2027 | Lillian Kao, MD | |
| Erin Morris | 2027 | KuoJen Tsao, MD Pediatric Surgery |
Faculty
| Lillian S. Kao, MD, MS (Co-Director) | General Surgery and Critical Care Surgery |
| Kevin P. Lally, MD, MS (Co-Director) | Pediatric Surgery |
| Mary Austin, MD, MPH | Pediatric Surgery |
| Marty Blakely, MD, MS | Pediatric Surgery |
| George Chang, MD, MS | Surgical Oncology |
| Bryan Cotton, MD, MPH | Acute Care Surgery |
| Charles S. Cox, Jr., MD | Pediatric Surgery |
| Clara Fowler, Sr. Librarian | Literature Appraisal |
| Maureen Goode, PhD | CCTS |
| Matthew Greives, MD, MS | Pediatric Plastic & Craniofacial Surgery |
| Matthew T. Harting, MD | Pediatric Surgery |
| Akemi Kawaguchi, MD | Pediatric Surgery |
| Kathleen Kennedy, MD, MPH (Program Advisor) | Neonatology, MS in Clinical Research Program |
| Pam Lally, MD | Pediatrics, Database Design |
| Charles C. Miller III, PhD | Epidemiology, CV Surgery |
| Eric Thomas, MD, MPH | Internal Medicine, Health Quality and Safety |
| KuoJen Tsao, MD | Pediatric Surgery |
| Jon Tyson, MD, MPH (Program Advisor) | Neonatology, Center for Clinical Research and EBM |
| Curtis Wray, MD | Surgical Oncology |
Contact Us:
For more information regarding C-STEP and its fellowship programs, please contact:
KuoJen Tsao, MD
[email protected]
or
Lillian Kao, MD, MS
[email protected]