Scholarly Activity

As faculty at the Baptist Memorial Surgical Education Program, we feel it is of utmost importance and benefit of the developing surgeon to pursue research endeavors.  Scholarly activity offers the opportunity to excel in any given area of surgery, master the knowledge of that field, and contribute to new discoveries that will advance the science of surgery.  Research is a component of life-long learning and vitally important to surgeons whether their ultimate practice is in a community or academic setting.  Plus, it is fun and offers the opportunity to attend and present at regional and national surgical meetings that our department strongly supports.

The core faculty and many of our clinical faculty have vast experience in the design, execution, interpretation and conclusion of research studies and manuscript preparation.  Our Baptist program, in cooperation from the Baptist Clinical Research Institute, offers supportive IRB, statistical and funding opportunities.

We will align incoming residents with a coaching research mentor at the start of their training to design a mutually agreeable and achievable project in an area of the student’s interest.  This may include any one or more of the following:

  • Case reports

  • Retrospective institutional chart reviews

  • Prospective institutional and multi-institutional research trials

  • National database research queries

  • Secondary analyses of clinical trials through Southwest Oncology Group

An important aspect of research involves interpretation, not only of one’s results, but that of others.  Many of our faculty have extensive experience in peer review submissions for major surgical journals.  We offer our residents the opportunity to participate in this important process along with a faculty mentor that develops critical thinking and perhaps new ideas for research endeavors going forward.  In addition, a monthly Journal Club offers a “deep dive” into major new publications in the surgical field to dissect and interpret.

We feel confident that our future master surgeons will find these commitments valuable, fulfilling and well worthy of the time investment.  We welcome your participation to move the needle forward in the field of surgery.