Clinical Work and Research

I am an academic colorectal surgeon, surgical educator, and health systems researcher whose work focuses on improving outcomes for patients, learners, and the surgical system as a whole—particularly where complexity, equity, and decision-making intersect.

My clinical and research foundation is in rectal cancer and colorectal disease, with a particular interest in organ preservation, postoperative outcomes, and quality of life. I have contributed to defining and standardizing complications, refining surgical techniques, and advancing patient-reported outcome measurement, including internationally collaborative work that ensures outcomes reflect what matters most to patients across diverse settings. This work is grounded in high-volume clinical practice and aims to translate experience into practical, generalizable insight.

Alongside this, my research increasingly examines surgical care as a systems challenge. I study how access, language, primary care attachment, and structural inequities influence emergency surgery, cancer care pathways, and downstream outcomes—reframing adverse events not as individual failures, but as signals of system design. More recently, I have explored how emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence, might support—not replace—multidisciplinary clinical decision-making by identifying variation, bias, and opportunities for improvement.

A third pillar of my work is surgical education and culture. I focus on fairness in selection and assessment, the hidden curriculum, and how language, feedback, and leadership shape learning environments. Across all domains, my scholarship is united by a single aim: to make surgical care safer, fairer, and more human by improving the systems in which surgeons, learners, and patients operate.