Carla Marie Pugh, MD, PhD, FACS

Carla Pugh, MD, PhD is the Thomas Krummel Professor of Surgery at Stanford Medicine and Director of the Technology Enabled Clinical Improvement (T.E.C.I.) Center. Her clinical area of expertise is Acute Care Surgery and her research involves the use of simulation, advanced engineering technologies, and artificial intelligence to develop new approaches for assessing and defining mastery in clinical procedural skills. Dr. Pugh is considered to be a leading, international expert on the use of sensors and motion tracking technologies for performance measurement. Dr. Pugh obtained her undergraduate degree at U.C. Berkeley in Neurobiology and her medical degree at Howard University School of Medicine. Upon completion of her surgical training at Howard University Hospital, she attended Stanford University to obtain her PhD in Education. Her goal is to use technology to change the face of medical and surgical education. Dr. Pugh holds multiple patents on the use of sensor and data acquisition technology to measure and characterize hands-on clinical skills. Currently, over two hundred medical and nursing schools are using one of her sensor-enabled training tools for their students and trainees. Her work has received numerous awards from medical and engineering organizations, including the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers from President Barack Obama at the White House in 2011. In 2014, she was invited to give a TEDMED talk on the potential uses of technology to transform how we measure clinical skills in medicine. Recently, Dr. Pugh was inducted into the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (April 2018), the American College of Surgeons Academy of Master Surgeon Educators (April 2019), as well as the American Board of Surgery Council (February 2020).

Abdomen and Digestion Disorder/Procedure

• abdominal pain
• adhesion removal
• appendectomy
• feeding tubes
• malrotation
• peptic ulcer disease
• peritonitis
• splenectomy

Minimally Invasive Procedures

• laparoscopic surgery

Trauma/Injury Procedures

• abdominal injuries
• abdominal wall reconstruction
• amputation
• bladder injury
• blunt trauma
• burns
• cardiac injury
• chest injuries
• cricothyroidotomy
• extremity injury
• female reproductive tract injury
• finger injuries
• foot/leg injury
• hand/arm injury
• intestine injuries
• kidney injury
• liver injury
• liver resection
• lung resections
• neck injuries
• skin grafting
• stomach injuries
• tracheotomy
• wound debridement

University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics

Madison, WI

Attending

03/2012—02/2018

Stanford University Hopital

Stanford, CA

Attending

03/2018—Present

University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health

Madison, WI

Professor

03/2012—02/2018

Stanford University School of Medicine

Stanford, CA

Professor

03/2018—Present