Big Data/ICES Node
Node Chair: Dr. Ahmad Elnahas, General Surgery
Building upon the existing success of ICES has become a beacon for population based research going on in Department of Surgery and Western. The ICES scholars program and research output has had excellent success but requires new momentum to carry it forward as external funding will soon become a challenge. By facilitating new relationships with partners, we can continue to grow the productivity (publications and external grants) of this Node so that it becomes self-sustaining.
Research Areas that would be Included in this Node:
- Health services planning and evaluation
- Population based outcomes research
Ahmad Elnahas
Assistant ProfessorResearch Interests / Specializations: Health services research; Surgical innovation; Quality control: Surgical process efficiency; Minimally invasive surgery/bariatric surgery
Teaching: Currently accepting graduate students
Biography: Research Overview: My current research interests include health policy evaluation, surgical process efficiency and quality control.
Sarah Appelton
Assistant ProfessorResearch Interests / Specializations: Soft tissue trauma reconstruction; Melanoma; Breast reconstruction
Lauren Cipriano
Assistant ProfessorResearch Interests / Specializations: Health Economics; Technology Adapation; Decision Modeling; Meta Analysis; Cost Effectivness Analysis
Teaching: Currently Accepting Graduate Students
Biography: Research Overview: My research interests focus on the application of statistics, economics, operations research, and systems analysis to health policy problems.
Sumit Dave
Associate ProfessorResearch Interests / Specializations: Minimally Invasive Surgery; Vesicoureteric Reflux; Robotics; Administrative Databases
Biography: Research Overview: ICES, administrative databases Robotic surgery Patient reported outcomes research"
Ryan Degen
Associate ProfessorResearch Interests / Specializations: Biomechanics; Hip; Clinical outcome; Shoulder; Knee
Teaching: Currently Accepting Graduate Students
Biography: Research Overview: My research interests focus primarily on lower extremity biomechanics, specifically focusing on hip and knee joint kinematics following various orthopedic surgical procedures. Additionally, I have an interest in associated clinical outcomes following similar procedures.
Luc Dubois
Associate ProfessorResearch Interests / Specializations: Aortic Aneurysm; Patient centered outcomes; Wound Healing; Peripheral arterial disease
Teaching: Currently Accepting Graduate Students
Biography: Research Overview: I study vascular diseases, aortic aneuryms, peripheral arterial disease, and focus on developing patient-centered outcomes, systematic reviews, and database research.
Katarina Grolinger
Assistant ProfessorResearch Interests / Specializations: Big Data; Data Analytics; Machine Learning; Data Management; Sensor Data
Teaching: Currently Accepting Graduate Students
Biography: Research Overview: My research aims to make better use of data, extract value from data, and support new data-driven solutions. It includes data analytics (focusing on sensor and clickstream data) and distributed data management. In recent years, the emergence of Big Data has created new opportunities in respect to insight discovery, improved decision making, and process optimization: my work explores techniques for handling these massive data sets.
Danielle MacNeil
Assistant ProfessorResearch Interests / Specializations: Head and Neck; Functional; Cancer; Outcomes; Survival
Biography: Research Overview: My primary research interests are to determine the factors which result in a delay in diagnosis and treatment of head and neck and to determine how the functional and survival outcomes of head and neck cancer patients can be improved.
Dave Nagpal
Assistant ProfessorResearch Interests / Specializations: Mechanical Circulatory Support; Transplantation; Nutrition; Program Development; Quality Improvement
Teaching: Currently Accepting Graduate Students
Biography: Research Overview: I'm interested in improving clinical outcomes in cardiac surgery and critical care medicine, and am particularly interested where these two disciplines intersect. Current areas of work include acute and chronic mechanical circulatory support, ECMO, heart transplantation, nutrition in cardiac and critical illness, atherosclerosis, and program development.
Rahul Nayak
Assistant ProfessorResearch Interests / Specializations: Patient outcomes; Benign Thoracic Diseases; Post operative complications; Minimally invasive surgery
Biography: Research Overview: I am interested in developing clinical pathways for diseases commonly managed by multiple specialties in order to streamline patient care and flow through the health system.
Andrew Simpson
Assistant ProfessorResearch Interests / Specializations: Outcomes; Lower extremity reconstruction; Skin cancer; Big Data: Microsurgery
Biography: Research Overview: Clinical outcome oriented research focusing on microsurgery, trauma reconstruction and skin cancer.
Stephen Pautler
Associate ProfessorResearch Interests / Specializations: Minimally invasive oncology; Kidney cancer; Robotic surgery; Prostate cancer; Surgical quality assurance
Teaching: Currently Accepting Graduate Students
Biography: Research Overview: After training at NCI/NIH in Bethesda, I returned to Western to develop a minimally-invasive urologic oncology program. I have interests in imaged-guided surgery, robotics, and novel approaches to cancer treatments. Further, surgical quality assessment and cancer system improves have been an interest of mine over the past 5 years.
Emil Schemitsch
Professor and Chair/Chief of SurgeryResearch Interests / Specializations: Biomechanics; Computer assisted surgery; Bone substitutes; Gene therapy
Teaching: Currently Accepting Graduate Students
Biography: Research Overview: My research has focused upon the care of patients with musculoskeletal injuries. My basic research interests include the systemic response to trauma, gene therapy, biomechanics, bone substitutes and the stimulation of fracture healing and my clinical research interests include computer assisted surgery, clinical trials and outcomes studies in upper and lower extremity trauma.
Kelly Vogt
Assistant ProfessorResearch Interests / Specializations: Epidemiology; Emergency General Surgery; Trauma; Health Systems; ICES
Teaching: Currently Accepting Graduate Students
Biography: Research Overview: My program of research is focused on using multiple methodologies to answer questions relating to the care of the injured patient and/or patients with emergency general surgery conditions.
Blayne Welk
Associate ProfessorResearch Interests / Specializations: Administrative data; Urology; Neurogenic bladder
Biography: Research Overview: Administative data research, neurourology and quality of life
