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Become a member and receive career-enhancing benefits

Our top priority is providing value to members. Your Member Services team is here to ensure you maximize your ACS member benefits, participate in College activities, and engage with your ACS colleagues. It's all here.

Become a Member
Become a member and receive career-enhancing benefits

Our top priority is providing value to members. Your Member Services team is here to ensure you maximize your ACS member benefits, participate in College activities, and engage with your ACS colleagues. It's all here.

Membership Benefits
ACS
Professional Growth

Becoming a Surgeon Scientist

(Recorded August 2018)

Presented by R. Scott Jones, MD, FACS, MS
Professor and Chair Emeritus of Surgery
Chairman, UVA Department of Surgery from 1981-2001

Robert B. Hawkins, MD, MSc
PGY-6, I-6 Cardiac Surgery Resident

J. Hunter Mehaffey, MD, MSc
PGY-6, 4-3 Cardiac Surgery Resident

Adishesh K. Narahari, MS
5th Year MD/PhD Student

In this webinar, we cover the track to becoming a surgeon-scientist through a series of grant mechanisms. We discuss the productivity of surgeon-scientists in the United States based on NIH funding (T32s, K08s, and R01s).

Learning Objectives

  1. List the various grant mechanisms at resident, early-faculty, and established faculty levels
  2. Determine how to obtain NIH funding at resident and faculty levels
  3. List key goals at each career stage to becoming a surgeon-scientist

About the Presenters

R. Scott Jones, MD, FACS, MS, is professor and Chair Emeritus of Surgery and the former chairman of the UVA Department of Surgery (198–-2001). He is a past president of the American College of Surgeons and was NIH funded for studying various processes in digestion. Adishesh Narahari, MS, is a fifth-year MD/PhD student at the University of Virginia Medical Scientist Training Program. He is studying the contribution of Pannexin-1 channels in neuropathic pain and is interested in pursuing a career as a cardiac surgeon-scientist. J. Hunter Mehaffey, MD, MSc, is a PGY-6 4+3 cardiac surgery resident at the University of Virginia. Hunter completed a two-year research fellowship on an NIH T32 grant studying mechanical circulatory support, lung transplant and ischemia reperfusion injury. Robert B. Hawkins, MD, MSc, is a PGY-6 integrated cardiac surgery resident at the University of Virginia. Dr. Hawkins’s research interests include prevention and treatment of thoracic aortic aneurysms utilizing a murine model as well as cardiovascular clinical research focused on quality, policy and healthcare economics.

Together, our team has published numerous studies on NIH funding and the development of surgeon scientists. Topics our team has researched include:

  1. Research is a vital component of optimal patient care (Jones et al. Ann. of Surg. 2004)
  2. T32 funding generates future surgeon scientists (Narahari, Mehaffey, Hawkins et al. JTCV 2018)
  3. Surgeons are successful at converting K08 grants into R01 funding (Narahari, Mehaffey, Hawkins et al. Ann. Thoracic Surg. 2018)
  4. Disproportionate level of funding for surgeon-scientists (Narahari, Mehaffey, Hawkins, Jones et al. J. Am. Coll. Surg. 2018).

The University of Virginia has a long tradition of training surgeon scientist through outstanding mentorship and strong research funding.