Congratulations to UAB medical students Teressa Duong, Elizabeth Lopez and Kayla Frey for placing first, second and third, respectively, in the Surgery and Anesthesiology virtual poster session at the Dale J. Benos Medical Student Research Day on Sep. 15.

Department of Surgery faculty-mentored medical students also placed in other categories throughout the day. Morgan Brazelle placed first in the Education category, while Edgar Soto and Jonathan Dismukes placed first and second, respectively, in Oral Presentations. Finally, Kurt Delay placed second in Other Research. Below is a complete listing of projects mentored by Department of Surgery faculty.

The following students were funded by the NIH project “Short-Term Research Experiences Advancing Medical Students” (T35DK116670), led by Department of Surgery Associate Professor Jayme Locke, M.D., MPH, and Chair Herbert Chen, M.D.:

• Elizabeth Lopez, mentored by Daniel Chu, M.D.
  • “Health Literacy in Patient-Surgeon Telehealth Encounters”
• Kayla Frey, mentored by Babak Orandi, M.D., Ph.D.
  • “Non-Invasive Evaluation of Liver Quality in Deceased Organ Donors”
• Jonathan Dismukes, mentored by Herbert Chen, M.D., FACS
  • “Prophylactic Central Neck Dissection in Papillary Thyroid Disease: All Risk, No Reward”

Additional projects include:

• Kurt DeLay, mentored by Panayotis Vardas, M.D.
  • “Indicators of Acute Right Heart Failure After Left Ventricular Assist Device Implantation”
• Teressa Duong, mentored by Vincent Mortellaro, M.D.
  • “Pediatric Laparoscopic Inguinal Hernia Repair Recurrence Rate”
• Morgan Brazelle, mentored by Brenessa Lindeman, M.D., FACS
  • “Concurrent Validity Evidence for Entrustable Professional Activities and Milestone Ratings in General Surgery Residents”
• Edgar Soto, mentored by Rene Myers, M.D.
  • “Evaluating Mandibular Distraction Osteogenesis as a Primary Intervention in Infants with Pierre Robin Sequence”
• Karleigh Johnson, mentored by Rongbing Xie, Dr.P.H., MPH
  • “Gender Disparities in Pre-operative Quality of Life among Aortic Valve Replacement Patients”

The Dale J. Benos Medical Student Research Day celebrates the research accomplishments of medical students and provides them with the opportunity to present their projects to fellow students and faculty. The day consists of oral and poster presentations by students enrolled in the M.D., M.D/M.P.H, M.D./M.S, M.D/MBA, and M.D./Ph.D. programs.