THE PHILADELPHIA ACADEMY OF SURGERY
10th Annual Surgical Trainee Paper Competition Program
Tuesday, February 10, 2026
Oral Presentations
6:00pm – Cocktail hour
6:15pm – Welcome Dr. Palazzo
6:20pm – Quick Shots - Introductions-Dr. Ratnasekera (3min each, 2min Q&A) 5min total
Meghan Grim, MS - Sidney Kimmel Medical College
Effects of Restrictive Perioperative Fluid Management During Open Pancreaticoduodenectomy on Postoperative Outcomes and Complications
Miranda Haslam, MD - Temple University Hospital
Management of Concomitant Traumatic Abdominal Vascular and Gastrointestinal Injuries
Margaret Hornick, MD - Penn Medicine
Preoperative Prediction of Incisional Hernia Using CT Imaging and Hybrid Intelligence Integrating Deep Learning and Optimal Biomarker Methods
Rahil Kheirkhah, MD - Christiana Care
Middle Meningeal Artery Embolization Enhances Treatment Durability in Chronic Subdural Hematomas
6:45pm – PAS Business Meeting - Readings, New Officer Slate- Dr’s Kirton & Marks
7:00pm – Long Presentations - Dr. Ratnasekera (7min each, 3min Q&A) 10min total
Sultan Abdelhamid M, MD - Jefferson Einstein Philadelphia Hospital
Overuse of Subtotal Cholecystectomy: Surgeon Behavior Patterns are the Strongest Predictor of Bailout Likelihood
Aidan Aicher, MD - Penn Medicine
Patient-Derived Malignant Pleural Effusion as a Versatile Translational Platform to Assess Novel Cancer Therapeutics
David Cyr, MD - Fox Chase Cancer Center
Redefining the Ideal Window to Resection Following Neoadjuvant Therapy for Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma
Emily Hancin, MD - Cooper University
The YAP1-IGFBP2 axis as a predictive biomarker and therapeutic target in gastric cancer metastasis
Jasmine Phun, MD - Lankenau Medical Center
Discordant HER2 Results Highlight the Need for Compulsory Biomarker Slide Review in Breast Cancer Referrals
7:55pm – Quick Shots - Dr. Ratnasekera (3min each, 2min Q&A) 5min total
Emily Kolodka, MD - Fox Chase Cancer Center
Minimally Invasive Proctectomy Achieves Higher Rates of Complete Total Mesorectal Excision (TME)
Natalia Mejia, MD - Temple University Hospital
Significant Reduction in Length of Stay Following DIEP Flap Breast Reconstruction with Implementation of a Multimodal ERAS Protocol: An Eight-Year Single-Institution Retrospective Analysis
Sadhvika Ramji, MD - Virtua Health
Less is More: Rethinking Botulinum toxin dosing for chronic anal fissures
Michael Wang, MD- Cooper University
AI-designed Novel NRF2Mut Inhibitors in Precision Cancer Therapy
8:25pm – Award Presentation/Final Announcement- Dr’s Ratnasekera and Palazzo