A combined MD-PhD student (she finished her PhD last summer) at the University of Toronto, SAGES member Hillary Lia is studying team dynamics and performance in surgery. She attended her firsts SAGES meeting in Montreal, where she discovered a supportive forum for students and residents to present their work.
Hillary, who presented an abstract for the SAGES meeting and published the corresponding paper in Surgical Endoscopy, says, “After learning so much from SAGES meetings, it’s nice to know that you’re giving back by contributing to materials that SAGES puts out.”
Hillary completed her undergraduate degree in biomedical computing from Queen’s University, where as a research assistant she focused on surgical technical skill acquisition and assessment from a computational perspective. Hillary has a special interest in AI in surgery from a team performance perspective and how surgical data science can be used to develop this area. As an SDS task force member, she supported a qualitative study of industry and SAGES members/designed a study group with industry and SAGES members on the ethical, legal and social implications around data ownership.
Dr. Amin Madani facilitated her SAGES involvement and encouraged her to join the Surgical Data Task Force (SDS), which is developing a secure online platform to support video upload, storage, review and rating by external raters. The platform includes added features such as coaching and data analytics, all intended to enable quality improvement initiatives.
It’s the ability to connect with SAGES members at many different levels that appeals to Hillary, who adds, “There are so many different educational and clinical branches of SAGES to learn from, which is great if you’re a student exploring what you’re interested in and learning about how to get involved.”
When Hillary’s not studying, making rounds or working with SAGES, she relaxes by tending to her indoor vegetable garden and reading.
SAGES Stories Ep. 26 – Jenny Shao, MD