- 6,977 admissions
- 17,743 OR cases
- 841 OR cases in the main hospital
- 4082 OR cases for the ambulatory surgery centers
- 106,140 clinic visits
- 143 clinical faculty
- 235 advanced practice providers
- 577,707 wRVUs
- 22,180 video/telehealth visits
- 1.9 M total miles saves
"This year has, once again, brought incredible challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, we have collectively risen to that challenge. Despite the many barriers and disruption of the pandemic, we have continued to make progress at achieving our missions in the department of surgery."
Clinical Care: By the Numbers

Research: By the Numbers

- $36,271,366 M. Total Funding
- 63 Principal Investigators
- 134 Active Grants
- 360 Publications
- 14 NIH Awards (RO1, RO3, R21, K08, UM1, T32 and P30 Grants)
- 251 Clinical Trials
- $18414814 M. Total Fiscal Year 2021 NIH Funding
Education: By the Numbers

- 137 Residents: 59% Male, 41% Female, 14% Underrepresented Minorities in Medicine, 17% Hold Advanced Degrees
- 3 T32 Grants
- 3 Residents Supported by T32 grants
- 162 ACGME-Accredited House Officers
- 14 Residents Went on to a Fellowship
- 15 Residents with Grants
- 25 Fellows
- 17 Specialty Fellowships
Michigan Promise Highlights
Environment
We introduced our “We Are Michigan Surgery” initiative based on the Walls Do Talk movement, featuring the voices of our faculty members and residents in our hallways, on our website and across our social media platforms. Our Michigan Action Progress System (MAPS) was launched, providing informal, ad hoc, peer-to-peer education when addressing mistreatment or unprofessional behavior to promote the collective, ongoing enhancement of the Department of Surgery culture. We held a webinar on a cultural complications curriculum that our faculty members have been leaders in developing.
Recruitment
In addition to several webinars related to our residency programs, we also hosted a webinar discussing “Building High Performing Teams in Academic Surgery: Opportunities and Challenges of Inclusive Recruitment Practices,” in which faculty members discussed lessons learned from the Michigan Promise on how and why to implement an inclusive faculty recruitment process.
Achievement
Our inaugural Boost Team cohort was introduced, starting a program that was developed based on feedback from faculty members who indicated additional support was needed for those who had just been promoted to associate professor. The program was modeled after our Launch Team program, which provides support for early-career faculty members. Workbooks were developed for both the Boost and Launch teams to provide additional structure and guidance for program participants.
Leadership
Our faculty members participated virtually in our faculty exchange program, in which early career faculty members collaborate and network with participating institutions across the country. Dr. Gurjit Sandhu visited Dartmouth virtually, while Dr. David Schneider from the University of Wisconsin and Dr. Noelle Saillant from Massachusetts General Hospital visited our department virtually. Dr. Schneider gave a clinical talk during his visit, and Dr. Saillant gave a Grand Rounds presentation during her visit. We also developed projects virtually through our Leadership Development Program, with teams focusing on clinical operations and recruitment.
Innovation
The Center for Surgical Innovation was established to support faculty members and trainees interested in developing projects and skills in the fields of innovation and entrepreneurship. We also set up a partnership with Imperial College of London and JoinXR to host an international grand rounds event featuring Microsoft’s HoloLens 2 mixed reality device.
Outreach
The Center for Global Surgery hosted their annual symposium virtually, focusing on capacity building, and the HOPE Collaborative held their virtual symposium discussing how to create pipelines and pathways for an equitable future in the healthcare workforce. The Doctors of Tomorrow program virtually hosted the third annual Diversity in Medicine Conference with the theme “Enacting Change: The Physician’s Role in Social Justice, Diversity, and Intersectionality,” as well as the annual capstone project symposium. The Michigan Women’s Surgical Collaborative hosted a “Leading While Female” webinar series to bring together women in surgery virtually to discuss skills and strategies for effective crisis management and provide attendees with leadership tools.
Research Center Highlights
Center for Basic & Translational Science
CBATS hosted a series of talks and Research in Progress sessions in conjunction with the Massachusetts General Hospital surgery-scientist program. These talks featured guest speakers from the University of Michigan, as well as residents and faculty from MGH, and included several discussions of grant-specific aims that resulted in funding for the grants. Theseevents have brought together the CBATS community, giving members the chance to get to know one another and learn about other labs.
Center for Global Surgery
The Michigan Center for Global Surgery hosted its Fourth Annual Symposium virtually in 2020, focusing on capacity building. We heard from academic institutions across the country on their experiences with their international partners and from faculty members who have obtained successful NIH funding for capacity building. Additionally, program officers from the NIH discussed best practices for obtaining grant funding for capacity building.
Center for Healthcare Outcomes and Policy
Our faculty and fellows generated research that positively impacted our communities and healthcare systems. Faculty submitted five R-level grants and multiple K-level grants for review, and have enjoyed community and collaboration within writing groups and works- in-progress seminars to advance research. Funded projects examined topics such as the financial burden of traumatic injuries, unmet needs of rectal cancer survivors using photo elicitation techniques, trends and impact of depression among surgeons and best practices in understanding equity and disparities in health outcomes.
Center for Surgical Innovation
In its inaugural year, the Center for Surgical Innovation established its lab space and began its innovation fellowship. Our team developed new industry partnerships to advance mixed reality technology, garnering world-wide coverage of our International Grand Rounds and receiving the provost’s 2021 Teaching Innovation Award. We launched online modules for the Surgical Innovation Accelerator course, and we began our Medical Innovator Community nights, where innovators across campus can share new ideas and collaborate to advance surgical care.
Center for Surgical Training and Research
CSTAR hosted a virtual seminar series twice a month, January through July. Seminars were led by both local and national experts and were open to anyone interested in learning more about how to conduct surgical education research. The series helped the surgical education community at Michigan Medicine stay connected during the pandemic and also drewparticipants from around the country. It is going to be officially opened to a national audience in partnership with the Society for Improving Medical Professional Learning (SIMPL).
Section & Division Highlights
Section of General Surgery
We provided highly complex care to COVID patients across the institution, including ECMO, and supported triage and transfer of highly acute COVID-19 patients to SICU. Our residency program was ranked #1 in surgery by Doximity. Our faculty submitted 101 proposals and received $9.7M in extramural funding.
Section of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery/Hospital Dentistry
A diverse new group of residents matched with our program this year, while our graduates went on to private practice or fellowships. We held the annual Women in Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery Symposium, founded in 2018. Our team began a clinical trial, “Opioid Analgesic Reduction Study (OARS): Managing Post- Operative Surgical Pain.”
Section of Pediatric Surgery
The section launched the Alliance of Pediatric Surgeons and Growing Representation and enhanced fellow education through competency-based training and collaboration with partner sites. Our team published 56 studies in peer-review journals and continued its strong participation in the Midwest Pediatric Surgery Consortium. Our surgeons began using hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy in the pediatric population, which Michigan Medicine surgeons have used to treat adults for several years. We re-opened the fetal endoscopic tracheal occlusion (FETO) clinical trial at our Fetal Diagnosis and Treatment Center, the only one in Michigan to offer FETO.
Section of Plastic Surgery
The Plastic Surgery Integrated Residency Program has been ranked the 4th in the country overall and the first in the country for Research based on Doximity rankings. Our team published 155 peer-reviewed publications. We established a strong presence at Chelsea Hospital, increased our presence at Mid-Michigan and started a new practice location in Brighton.
Section of Thoracic Surgery
We began piloting a remote patient monitoring system that is applied to the neck to measure breathing and coughing after major general thoracic surgery. As members of the Thoracic Surgery Oncology Group (TSOG), we participated in and continue to be a part of a number of clinical trials including the LEADER trial screening patients with stage IB-III non-small cell lung cancer for specific actionable mutations. Our team’s research resulted in approximately five grants and 75 publications accepted in peer reviewed journals, in addition to the publication of 18 abstracts, eight manuscripts and one book chapter. Faculty members gave two extramural presentations and three intramural presentations.
Section of Transplant Surgery
Despite the challenges associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, we had one of our busiest years and performed 309 transplants, while also prioritizing safety in our living donor kidney and liver programs. Our faculty members have developed a transplant research focus group for residents and students, which has led to over a dozen manuscripts and encouraged learners to pursue careers in surgery and transplantation. We continue to build upon a diverse and significant portfolio of extramural funding, including the addition of a new $9 million grant from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to advance health equity.
Section of Vascular Surgery
We partnered with Henry Ford Allegiance to expand our education opportunities. We also offered six ‘First Look’webinars for resident recruitment and virtual electives. Our faculty team published 134 publications, and secured close to $9.4 million in total extramural grants. The Frankel Cardiovascular Center launched MI-AORTA, an enhanced aortic program to consolidate current work in aortic disease. Practice optimization work resulted in the implementation of clinical decision trees, as well as enhanced referrals and e-consults for internal referring physicians. Our team offered custom Physician-Modified Endovascular Grafts (PMEGs), a huge milestone for non- operative candidates with advanced aortic disease.
Division of Anatomical Sciences
Our team teaches over 1,000 students at the University of Michigan each year. We launched two new courses: a teaching elective with ENT for M3/M4s and ANAT 303. There was an exponential increase in enrollment and engagement in our Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) Anatomy Series with 332% increase in Coursera enrollment and approximately 120,000 current learners worldwide. We saw substantial growth in use of BlueLink anatomy multimedia this year, documented in an extrinsic peer-reviewed publication.
Our Team Highlights
New Faculty Members
Faculty Promotions
- Jose De Cardenas-Garcia, MD: Clinical Associate Professor, Departments of Internal Medicine and Surgery
- Lesly Dossett, MD, MPH: Associate Professor with Tenure, Department of Surgery
- Timothy Frankel, MD: Associate Professor with Tenure, Department of SUrgery
- Katherine Gallagher, MD: Professor with Tenure, Departments of Surgery & Immunology
- Amir Ghaferi, MD, MS: Professor with Tenure, Department of Surgery
- Steven Haase, MD: Clinical Professor, Departments of Surgery and Orthopaedic Surgery
- Stephen Kemp, PhD: Research Associate Professor, Department of Surgery
- Laura Kresty, PhD, MS: Associate Professor, Department of Surgery
- Theodore Kung, MD: Clinical Associate Professor, Department of Surgery
- Jules Lin, MD: Professor with Tenure, Department of Surgery
- Nicholas Osborne, MD, MS: Associate Professor with Tenure, Department of Surgery
- Marina Pasca di Magliano, PhD: Professor, Department of Surgery
- Erin Perrone, MD: Clinical Associate Professor, Department of Surgery
- Rishindra Reddy, MD, MBA, FACS: Associate Professor with Tenure, Department of Surgery
- Allison Schulman, MD, MPH: Clinical Associate Professor, Departments of Internal Medicine and Surgery
- Erika Sears, MD, MS: Associate Professor with Tenure, Department of Surgery
- Suman Sood, MD: Clinical Associate Professor, Departments of Internal Medicine and Surgery
- Brent Ward, MD, DDS: Professor with Tenure, Departments of Surgery and Dentistry
New Residents
- Blessing Alagba, DDS: Hospital Dentistry General Practice Residency
- Christopher Breuler, MD: Integrated Plastic Surgery Residency
- Joshua Brown, DDS: Hospital Dentistry General Practice Residency
- Ayana Cole-Price, MD, MSc: Integrated Plastic Surgery Residency
- Jonathan Cunha, MD, MS: General Surgery Residency
- Mason Cyr, DDS: Hospital Dentistry General Practice Residency
- Temilolaoluwa Daramola, MD, RN, MS: Integrated Thoracic Surgery Residency
- Luciano Delbono, MD: Integrated Vascular Surgery Residency
- Chi Chi Do-Nguyen, DO: Integrated Thoracic Surgery Residency
- Caleb Haley, MD: Integrated Plastic Surgery Residency
- Hayden Han, DDS: Hospital Dentistry General Practice Residency
- Catherine Haviland, DDS: Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery Residency
- Phillip Hsu, MD, PhD: General SUrgery REsidency
- Jaclyn Mauch, MD, MBE: Integrated Plastic Surgery Residency
- Cody Mullens, MD, MPH: General Surgery Residency
- Andrea Numbers, DMD: Orofacial Pain Residency
- Jamila Picart, MD: General Surgery Residency
- Jeremiah Ricketson, DMD: Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery Residency
- Paris Rollins, MD: General Surgery Residency
- Samantha (Sam) Savitch, MD: General Surgery Residency
- Dylan Starck, DMD: Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery Residency
- Leigh Ann Wahl, DMD, MBA: Hospital Dentistry General Practice Residency
- Steven Xie, MD: General Surgery Residency