PGY-2 General Surgery Resident Connie Shao, M.D., will spend the 2020-2021 academic year in Chicago as a fellow for the MacLean Center for Surgical Medical Ethics.

The American College of Surgeons-MacLean Center fellowship is designed to prepare surgeons for careers that combine clinical surgery with scholarly studies in surgical ethics. This one-year fellowship will be integrated into Shao’s two years of National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded research that focuses on identifying, understanding and reducing surgical disparities under the guidance of her research mentor, Department of Surgery Associate Professor and Health Services Research Associate Director Dr. Daniel Chu, M.D.

Both Shao’s research and the ethics fellowship have been made possible by the support of the NIH Health Services, Outcomes, and Effectiveness Research T32 grant, coordinated by UAB’s Division of Clinical Immunology and Rheumatology Professor Kenneth Saag M.D., M.Sc.,  Department of Epidemiology Assistant Professor Emily Levitan Ph.D., ScD, and Department of Medicine Professor Michael Mugavero M.D., MHSc, as well as the advocacy and encouragement of Department of Surgery Chair Herbert Chen, M.D., FACS, and Professor Benjamin Pearce, M.D.

Shao says that her decision to pursue academic surgery was largely shaped by the experiences she had at the University of Chicago as a medical student, and she is excited to return with the fresh perspective and clinical experience she has gained at the UAB General Surgery Residency Program.

“Being selected as a fellow for the MacLean Center for Surgical Ethics is a humbling honor. The fellowship directors, Dr. Mark Siegler and Dr. Peter Angelos, have been groundbreaking leaders in the field of clinical ethics,” said Shao. “The opportunity to train under their guidance will be an incredibly formative experience both for my career and my personal development.”

Shao sees this fellowship as an opportunity to lay the foundation for the rest of her career as a provider dedicated to improving outcomes for all patients, independent of demographic, socioeconomic background, health literacy and access to care.

“I hope to refine my contributions to both my patients and the field of academic surgery through the intellectual frameworks I develop during this fellowship,” said Shao. “In addition, I hope to contribute to the growing bioethics presence at UAB, including the CCTS Bioethics Forum and the Comprehensive Cancer Center partnership involving Morehouse College, Tuskegee University and UAB.”

After completing her fellowship and two years of research, Shao will return to the General Surgery Residency program as a PGY-3 general surgery resident.