Congratulations to Giselle G. Hamad, MD, FACS, FASMBS and Amer H. Zureikat, MD, FACS, who were both appointed to named professorships in the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine effective February 1, 2020. Dr. Hamad was appointed to the Charles Gray Watson Professorship in Surgical Education and Dr. Zureikat was appointed to the UPMC Professorship in Clinical Surgery.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article “African American health pros and their patients build trust to save lives from breast cancer” spotlights the community outreach efforts of Steven Evans, MD.
Congratulations to Steven Evans, MD, who has been elected as an alternate delegate for the Pennsylvania Medical Society (PAMED) House of Delegates (HOD). Serving as a delegate at the HOD helps PAMED develop meaningful policy that benefits Pennsylvania physicians and patients. Each year, delegates and alternate delegates are selected by their county medical societies and medical specialty societies.
On December 18, 2019, surgical oncologist Melanie C. Ongchin, MD, FACS presented a lecture at UPMC Passavant on "Management of Complex Gastrointestinal Malignancies and Peritoneal Disease."
In the UPMC OnTopic Video “Breast Cancer in African-American Women,” Steven Evans, MD discusses breast cancer disparities impacting African-American women.
On Friday, November 22, the Division of GI Surgical Oncology held a fundraising event for Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Week. The event raised $3,057 for UPMC Pancreatic Cancer Research. Special thanks to Shavala Thomas for heading up the event and the division’s special non-profit partners the National Pancreas Foundation and the Pancreatic Action Network for their support.
On November 19, UPMC Hillman Cancer Center held a welcome reception to honor their new faculty, who included new department surgical oncology faculty members Andrew J. Lee, MD, PhD; Joanna Lee, MD; Jason Lohmueller, PhD; Patrick Murphy, PhD; Melanie Ongchin, MD; Alessandro Paniccia, MD; and Norman Wolmark, MD.
Congratulations to Amer H. Zureikat, MD, FACS, who was awarded a 2019 seed grant from the Hirshberg Foundation for Pancreatic Cancer for his project “Neoadjuvant Autophagy Inhibition in Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma Promotes an Effector T Cell Response and Tertiary Lymphoid Structures.”
David L. Bartlett, MD, who is President of the Society of Surgical Oncology, attended the 39th Congress of the European Society of Surgical Oncology (“ESSO39”) in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, October 9-11, 2019. Dr. Bartlett is participating with SSO and ESSO leadership at the congress to discuss collaborative initiatives around educational programs, global outreach efforts, and the International Career Development Exchange programs offered by both societies.
Amer H. Zureikat, MD, FACS presented the grand rounds lecture "Updates in the Management of Pancreatic Surgery" at Indiana Regional Medical Center on October 1, 2019.