The Seventh Annual Surgical Resident and Fellow Research Presentation Day

Abstract The Seventh Annual Surgical Resident and Fellow Research Presentation Day was held on Friday, May 19, 2000, from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm at the Stearns Auditorium, New England Medical Center, Boston, Massachusetts. This research event was originally a homegrown affair, conducted entirely by and for the New England Medical Center. The research day has now expanded to include residents and fellows from programs all over New England. This year’s Surgical Resident and Fellow Research Presentation Day was sponsored by the Department of Surgery, Tufts University School of Medicine; The Kiwanis Pediatric Trauma Institute; and the following societies and chapters: the New England Surgical Society, the Massachusetts Chapter of the American College of Surgeons, and the Connecticut Chapter of the American College of Surgeons. The purpose of this day was to provide a forum for residents and fellows in the region to present their work in a formal, yet more relaxed venue. Although the quality of the science presented was excellent, the organizers of this event focused more on the quality of the presentations themselves—their delivery and organization. The ability to use audiovisual aids and to support conclusions with appropriate data within the presentation was of high importance. The focus upon presentation had the advantage of allowing for an even basis of evaluation between those presenting clinical data and those presenting scientific work. The presentation winners for this year were as follows: Best Overall Presentation—Iyer M, Prabakaran I, Menon C, Fraker DL. Tumor necrosis factor downregulates vascular endothelial growth factor receptors in vivo. Department of Surgery, University of Connecticut School of Medicine, Farmington, Connecticut, and the Harrison Department of Surgical Research, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Second Place—Tavakkolizadeh T, Shen R, Abraham P, et al. Glucagon-like peptide-2 (GLP-2) promotes intestinal recovery following chemotherapy-induced enteritis. Departments of Surgery, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, and the Division of Health Sciences and Technology, Harvard–Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Third Place—Yeh JJ, Sellers WR. Akt and prostate tumorigenesis. Department of Adult Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and the Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, and the Department of Surgery, Boston University Medical Center, Boston, Massachusetts. Honorable Mention—Benedetto BJ, Emhoff TA. The use of hyperbaric oxygen (HBO) for the management of calciphylaxis. Baystate Medical Center, Tufts University School of Medicine, Springfield, Massachusetts. The research day provided an excellent opportunity for young surgeons to either practice for an upcoming presentation or to have a second chance to do a presentation that had previously needed a little work. Also, many of the residents and fellows were able to meet their counterparts from other programs, something they would not have been able to do had it not been for this event. In all, 22 presentations were made. Nineteen of these presentations are shown in abstract form here (the 3 remaining presentations are listed below). These abstracts represent just some of the many wonderful research projects coming from residents and fellows in the New England programs. I hope that you will enjoy reading these abstracts and that they will peak your interest. It is also my hope that this research day will continue to grow. For this to happen, though, continued support of our state and regional surgical societies is needed, so that our residents will have a local forum in which to present their hard work, develop their presentation skills, and enjoy this collegial opportunity and experience.