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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