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SAGES Member Spotlight: Elisa Calabrese, MD

April 28, 2025 by Julie Miller

 

Surgical resident Dr. Elisa Calabrese is so passionate about surgical guidelines that, as a SAGES/RAC Guideline fellow, she’s signed on for an extra year in Australia to earn a PhD in Surgery studying the development and evaluation of surgical clinical practice guidelines.

In 2023, SAGES and the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS) co-sponsored Dr. Calabrese, then a surgery resident at the University of California San Francisco-East Bay, to spend a year at the University of Adelaide.. An active member of SAGES Guidelines committee, she was chosen based on her skillset, interest in research and experience in systematic reviews.

Systematic review training is given to residents, fellows and medical students as a way to learn to help clinicians integrate research findings into practice and make informed decisions. Having worked with Drs. Bethany Slater, Geoff Kohn, Debby Keller, Mike Awad and now Kevin El-Hayek, she’s published four articles to date https://www.sages.org/publications/guidelines/, the most recent being “Clinical artificial intelligence: teaching a large language model to generate recommendations that align with guidelines for the surgical management of GERD.”

“There’s a wide variety of surgeons and physicians that have experience in the questions we’re trying to help answer and it’s interesting to hear everyone debate and to also incorporate patient engagement because what we create is relevant to both the patient and surgical community,” explains Dr. Calabrese, one of a number of trainees on SAGES Guidelines committee. “We try to simplify the research available and make it digestible to both communities. I really like that our work can be used to answer clinically relevant questions.”

She adds, “I’ve learned a lot in the process of guideline creation, including skills that I can use for the rest of my career as a surgeon.”

Dr. Calabrese, who is also currently training for a marathon on Kangaroo Island, will finish her final two years of residency when she returns to Northern California. She’s interested in several surgical subspecialties, including colorectal, hepatobiliary and trauma.

She might also take a little time off to enjoy some of her other favorite non-guidelines activities: hiking, dancing and playing the piano.

Surgical resident Dr. Elisa Calabrese is so passionate about surgical guidelines that, as a SAGES/RAC Guideline fellow, she’s signed on for an extra year in Australia to earn a PhD in Surgery studying the development and evaluation of surgical clinical practice guidelines.

In 2023, SAGES and the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS) co-sponsored Dr. Calabrese, then a surgery resident at the University of California San Francisco-East Bay, to spend a year at the University of Adelaide.. An active member of SAGES Guidelines committee, she was chosen based on her skillset, interest in research and experience in systematic reviews.

Systematic review training is given to residents, fellows and medical students as a way to learn to help clinicians integrate research findings into practice and make informed decisions. Having worked with Drs. Bethany Slater, Geoff Kohn, Debby Keller, Mike Awad and now Kevin El-Hayek, she’s published four articles to date https://www.sages.org/publications/guidelines/, the most recent being “Clinical artificial intelligence: teaching a large language model to generate recommendations that align with guidelines for the surgical management of GERD.”

“There’s a wide variety of surgeons and physicians that have experience in the questions we’re trying to help answer and it’s interesting to hear everyone debate and to also incorporate patient engagement because what we create is relevant to both the patient and surgical community,” explains Dr. Calabrese, one of a number of trainees on SAGES Guidelines committee. “We try to simplify the research available and make it digestible to both communities. I really like that our work can be used to answer clinically relevant questions.”

She adds, “I’ve learned a lot in the process of guideline creation, including skills that I can use for the rest of my career as a surgeon.”

Dr. Calabrese, who is also currently training for a marathon on Kangaroo Island, will finish her final two years of residency when she returns to Northern California. She’s interested in several surgical subspecialties, including colorectal, hepatobiliary and trauma.

She might also take a little time off to enjoy some of her other favorite non-guidelines activities: hiking, dancing and playing the piano.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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