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Four St. Luke's residents and one medical student presented papers at the Academic Surgical Congress (ASC), a joint meeting of the two leading associations for academic surgery - the Association for Academic Surgery (AAS) and the Society of University Surgeons (SUS). Together, the AAS and SUS boast more than 5,000 members from leading institutions nationwide.

The 11th Annual Academic Surgical Congress (ASC) was held February 2-4, 2016, at the Hyatt Regency Jacksonville Riverfront in Jacksonville, Florida. Academic surgeons from a breadth of disciplines participated. Medical students, residents and young surgeons were acknowledged for their thought-provoking work and established surgical leaders presented keynote addresses.

"This is only the second time our students have presented at ASC, and in only one year we have more than doubled the number of papers presented at one of the most prestigious academic surgical meetings in the world," notes Brian Hoey, MD, program director, St. Luke's General Surgery Residency. "This impressive showing demonstrates St. Luke's commitment to research and medical education, as well as the outstanding leadership provided by Stan Stawicki, MD, Research and Innovation chair.

Students presenting at this year's conference and their topics were:

• Maggie Lin, MD, general surgery resident (PGY 4) along with Vascular Surgery team, presented "Temporal variability of mortality & readmission determinant s in peripheral vascular surgery patients." This project also involved medical student Eric Pletcher.
• Dr. Lin, along with Vascular Surgery team, also presented "Comorbidity-polypharmacy score predicts morbidity, infections after lower extremity bypass." This project also involved medical student Eric Pletcher.
• Dr. Lin, along with Trauma Team and Surgery Team presented "Traditional autopsy versus CT-imaging autopsy in trauma : A Case of 'Synergistic Disagreement.'" This project also involved medical student Marissa S. Cohen.
• Heidi Han, MD, general surgery resident (PGY3) along with the Trauma Team presented "Identifying injury and fatality risks in aeromedical transport: Making it safer for the lifesavers." This project also involved medical student JP Anagnostakos.
• Dr. Hon, along with the Plastic Surgery team presented "A comparative study: Acellular dermis vs. inferior de-epithelized flap in breast reconstruction."
• Brett Styskel, Temple medical student along with patient safety team presented "Natural history of retained surgical items: Building on cumulative experience."
• Anthony Cipriano, MD, general surgery resident (PGY 2) along with the Trauma team presented "Comparison of platelet & RBC indices after splenectomy, embolization, & observation in trauma.” This project also involved one of our med students- Suzie Liu.

"I couldn't be more pleased by the number and quality of the papers presented," says Dr. Stawicki. "This is just one indication of the caliber of the residents and medical students who study at St. Luke's University Health Network."

With the assistance of faculty mentors, all surgical residents are required to complete a minimum of four projects prior to completing their residency. The expectation is that this work will be presented at a national meeting and ultimately be published.

About ASC The mission of the Academic Surgical Congress (ASC) is to promote surgical research investigations through the communication of ideas between surgical residents, surgical fellows, junior surgical faculty, and full professors, and through awarding surgical research grants. Members and leaders of the association usually maintain active laboratories or academic research programs at their institutions. In recent years, the association has increased its international involvement and taken a role in policy development. Increasingly, new members are from outside North America.