Research Nodes

Five Virtual Research Nodes  — Sign up here

Node 1: Big Data/ICES - Node Chair: Dr. Ahmad Elnahas, General Surgery
The Big Data node is dedicated to helping members of the Department of Surgery do database research with a focus on ICES database work.  The node has one full time epidemiologist and former ICES data analyst at its disposable who is available to help flesh out ideas, support grant applications and help with data analysis for big data projects, particularly for ICES projects.

Node 2: Surgical Education Research - Node Chair: TBA
The surgical education node intends to utilize a collaborative and multidisciplinary approach to advance every facet of surgical education including evaluation, feedback, teamwork, team communication, surgical decision-making, competency-based medical education, resident selection, skill acquisition, simulation, virtual reality, augmented reality and curriculum design. In order to achieve this comprehensive goal, the node aims to expand membership to include education scientists (CERI), engineers (CSTAR), mathematicians, physicists, computer scientists (AI, imaging and video game specialists), psychologists and other healthcare professionals (nursing and other departments within the faculty of medicine).

Node 3: Fundamental Sciences and Surgical Innovation - Node Chair: Dr. Jeremy Burton, Urology and Microbiology and Immunology 
This Node will continue to be a flagship for the DOS as most of the successful, externally funded ongoing research projects within our individual Divisions are based upon laboratory/bench research. Creating an environment which brings together basic science laboratories and biotechnology research facilities with clinical innovators will lead to accelerated translation to mainstream clinical and educational practice through close collaboration with the Innovation Fellows program and World Discoveries.

Node 4: Quality Improvement - Node Chair: Dr. Terry Zwiep, General Surgery
This area of research which includes quality improvement and patient safety is essential to creating a culture of continuous improvement and improved patient care. It is also important with QBP funding models and Ministry of Heath metrics on outcomes from each of our Divisions. This Node becomes increasingly relevant in the translation of research which is produced from the other Nodes.

Node 5: Patient Centered Research - Node Chair: Dr. Supriya Singh, Orthopaedic Surgery
This area of research, which includes patient diagnostics, management/treatment and outcomes, is becoming increasingly important with QBP funding models and Ministry of Heath metrics on outcomes from each of our Divisions. This Node becomes increasingly important as research is produced from the other Nodes and eventually leads to the bedside.