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 Clinical Research
The C-STEP Clinical Research Fellowship is accepting beginning July 1, 2025. The 2-year program is established for surgical residents interested in a career in academic clinical research with a focus in pediatric surgery. Fellows will obtain a Master’s Degree in a Clinical Research established by the Center for Evidenced-based Medicine and Clinical Research at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth. The Master’s program curriculum focuses on training clinical investigators in designing and conducting patient-oriented research of high quality. In addition to the educational foundation, fellows will work with established faculty mentors with advanced degrees in clinical research to develop expertise in the scientific research process. This would include identifying key problems in pediatric surgery, gathering and analyzing the current evidence and literature, and developing/implementing a clinical research study. In addition, fellows will work with mentors to learn the mechanisms of becoming a funded clinical researcher. Applicants should have completed the PGY-2 year of an ACGME-accredited general surgery residency program by the start of the fellowship. Pay and benefits will commensurate with NIH guidelines for PGY level.
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 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mokunfayo Fajemisin | 2025 | Lillian Kao, MD | |
| Stephanie Martinez Ugarte | 2025 | Lillian Kao, MD | |
| Krysta Sutyak | 2025 | KuoJen Tsao, MD Pediatric Surgery |
|
| Jeannette Joly | 2026 | 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]