Research in the Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery
Our extremely productive research arm is supervised by Dr. Zaid Abdelsattar, Director of Surgical Research at the Thoracic and Cardiovascular Research Institute (Twitter Handle: @ZaidAbdelsattar).
Dr. Abdelsattar is a prolific surgeon-scientist whose research emphasis is in health services and translational research. The focus is to better understand the quality of thoracic surgical care at the national level by studying processes of care, structure and surgical outcomes utilizing big data, clinical registries and administrative databases. These are used to help inform large scale policy and affect clinical practice.
Departmental research also bridges health services with innovative translational research that can identify mechanistic and pathophysiological attributes in thrombosis and inflammation and how they relate to improving several processes of surgical care that can result in real-world solutions to many surgical problems.
Our research program benefits from many collaborations with basic scientists and other surgeons from other disciplines, including surgical oncology, trauma surgery, the Edward Hines Jr.. VA Hospital, and with many of the basic science laboratories located on the medical school campus and its Center for Translational Research and Education. Amongst our closest relationships are those has with the Loyola Core and Specials Clinical Coagulation Laboratories under the direction of Dr. Jeanine Walenga and Dr. Walter Jeske.
Dr. Abdelsattar's work has been published in several high impact peer reviewed journals including The Lancet, JAMA Surgery, Annals of Surgery, Annals of Thoracic Surgery and the Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery amongst others. He has authored or co-authored over 75 published papers, of which he is first or senior author on over 50% of those. He has mentored several medical students who have all had first author publications and opportunities to present at the podium nationally or internationally. Many students have also received prestigious awards from the Stritch School of Medicine at Loyola University Chicago, and from international societies such as the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer.
Our Department has a long track record of multidisciplinary collaboration but our closest collaboration has been with the Loyola Core and Specials Clinical Coagulation Laboratories under the direction of Dr. Jeanine Walenga and Walter Jeske.
Dr. Abdelsattar is a prolific surgeon-scientist whose research emphasis is in health services and translational research. The focus is to better understand the quality of thoracic surgical care at the national level by studying processes of care, structure and surgical outcomes utilizing big data, clinical registries and administrative databases. These are used to help inform large scale policy and affect clinical practice.
Departmental research also bridges health services with innovative translational research that can identify mechanistic and pathophysiological attributes in thrombosis and inflammation and how they relate to improving several processes of surgical care that can result in real-world solutions to many surgical problems.
Our research program benefits from many collaborations with basic scientists and other surgeons from other disciplines, including surgical oncology, trauma surgery, the Edward Hines Jr.. VA Hospital, and with many of the basic science laboratories located on the medical school campus and its Center for Translational Research and Education. Amongst our closest relationships are those has with the Loyola Core and Specials Clinical Coagulation Laboratories under the direction of Dr. Jeanine Walenga and Dr. Walter Jeske.
Dr. Abdelsattar's work has been published in several high impact peer reviewed journals including The Lancet, JAMA Surgery, Annals of Surgery, Annals of Thoracic Surgery and the Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery amongst others. He has authored or co-authored over 75 published papers, of which he is first or senior author on over 50% of those. He has mentored several medical students who have all had first author publications and opportunities to present at the podium nationally or internationally. Many students have also received prestigious awards from the Stritch School of Medicine at Loyola University Chicago, and from international societies such as the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer.
Our Department has a long track record of multidisciplinary collaboration but our closest collaboration has been with the Loyola Core and Specials Clinical Coagulation Laboratories under the direction of Dr. Jeanine Walenga and Walter Jeske.
Recent Achievements
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL ORAL PRESENTATIONS
Twelve presentations at fora of national/international scope
PUBLICATIONS AND AWARDS
The laboratory produced a total of 30 published papers in peer reviewed journals in the last two years. These high-impact articles were published in notable platforms including:
•The following Stritch students are 1st authors:
Twelve presentations at fora of national/international scope
- American College of Surgeons 10/2022
- Southern Thoracic Surgical Association, 11/2022
- Academic Surgical Congress 2/2022
- Western Surgical Association 11/2021
- The American Association for Thoracic Surgery 2021 (x2)
- World Conference on Lung Cancer 9/2021 (Award)
- Central Surgical Association 6/2022 (x2)
- Academic Surgical Congress 2/2022
- Western Surgical Association 11/2021 (x2)
PUBLICATIONS AND AWARDS
The laboratory produced a total of 30 published papers in peer reviewed journals in the last two years. These high-impact articles were published in notable platforms including:
- The Lancet (x1)
- Annals of Thoracic Surgery (x7)
- Journal of Thoracic & Cardiovascular Surgery (x2)
- Journal of the American College of Surgeons (x5)
- Surgery (x5)
•The following Stritch students are 1st authors:
- Mike Littau
- Siena Roat-Shumway
- Matt Khouzam (Loyola STAR Award)
- Mark Jaradeh (IASLC Student Early Career Award)
- James Swanson
- Preston Kim
- Dhruv Patel
- Isabella Lorenzo
POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCH FELLOWSHIP
Funding now exists for 1-2 years of post-doctoral research with our Departmental laboratory.
The ideal candidate will be a recent graduate, holding an M.D. and/or PhD with an interest in cardiothoracic surgery, thoracic oncology and/or heart/lung transplantation. Surgical residents who wish to gain research experience are welcome to apply. Experience with statistical software packages such as R, SAS, Stata, is preferred but not mandatory.
The successful candidate will have the appropriate mentorship and supervision to see through translational and health services research projects from idea to publication, and the opportunity to present at national and international meetings. The candidate will be able to develop a research niche and area of expertise in cardiothoracic surgery. The candidate will become facile in the management and analysis of big data as it pertains to cardiothoracic surgery with emphasis on health care delivery and policy. The candidate will work in a multi-disciplinary research environment which includes multiple renowned cardiothoracic surgeons, thoracic oncologists, cardiologists and pulmonologists, in addition to having access to basic scientists at the Health Sciences Campus of Loyola University Chicago.
Light clinical duty not to exceed 20 percent of total time in the fellowship offers the candidate the opportunity to maintain surgical skills and increase experience of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery.
Candidates are invited to send a CV and a cover letter expressing their interest through the contact page.
The ideal candidate will be a recent graduate, holding an M.D. and/or PhD with an interest in cardiothoracic surgery, thoracic oncology and/or heart/lung transplantation. Surgical residents who wish to gain research experience are welcome to apply. Experience with statistical software packages such as R, SAS, Stata, is preferred but not mandatory.
The successful candidate will have the appropriate mentorship and supervision to see through translational and health services research projects from idea to publication, and the opportunity to present at national and international meetings. The candidate will be able to develop a research niche and area of expertise in cardiothoracic surgery. The candidate will become facile in the management and analysis of big data as it pertains to cardiothoracic surgery with emphasis on health care delivery and policy. The candidate will work in a multi-disciplinary research environment which includes multiple renowned cardiothoracic surgeons, thoracic oncologists, cardiologists and pulmonologists, in addition to having access to basic scientists at the Health Sciences Campus of Loyola University Chicago.
Light clinical duty not to exceed 20 percent of total time in the fellowship offers the candidate the opportunity to maintain surgical skills and increase experience of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery.
Candidates are invited to send a CV and a cover letter expressing their interest through the contact page.
