UTHealth Houston Demonstrates the Power of Value at National Conference
The 19th annual American College of Surgeons Quality and Safety Conference was held July 18-21 in Denver, Colorado. Not even the Crowd Strike cybersecurity incident could diminish the energy and enthusiasm at this conference, attended by over 1500 participants worldwide. The conference, chaired by Lillian S. Kao, MD, MS, FACS, professor, and Jack H. Mayfield, MD, Chair in the Department of Surgery, focused on the theme of the “Power of Value.” Kao, who gave one of the two opening talks, discussed that value in healthcare is in the eye of the beholder (or stakeholder) – i.e., patients, caregivers, surgeons, administrators, payers, etc. Furthermore, she noted that everyone dedicated to quality and safety brings value to their healthcare institutions and systems every day. In addition to giving opening comments, Kao moderated a panel of stakeholders who discussed aligning quality metrics with value in real-world settings and gave a talk on “Innovating while Ensuring Quality and Safety.”
Michael W. Wandling, MD, MS, FACS, Assistant Professor of Surgery and Interim Trauma Medical Director, spoke in a series of sessions about the Emergency General Surgery (EGS) Verification Program. His work on this important program, which includes both patients managed operatively and non-operatively, started when he was an Acute Care Surgery Clinical Scholar during residency. He has spent the last several years working on developing, implementing, and expanding the EGS Targeted Module within the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP) – the program has significant potential to improve the care of a high-risk population.
Residents also had the opportunity to shine at this conference, with a record-breaking submission volume of over 800 abstracts. Krysta Sutyak, DO, a resident in the Center for Surgical Trials and Evidence-based Practice (C-STEP) program, won a prize for her abstract addressing opioid minimization in children; her mentor is KuoJen Tsao, MD, Professor of Pediatric Surgery. Mokunfayo Fajemisin, MD, presented her project assessing health literacy in surgical patients at a safety-net hospital.
