Leads

Senior Vice President for Strategic Business Development
Professor, Division of Minimally Invasive, Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery
Thomas Jefferson University and Jefferson Health, Philadelphia PA
Dr. Rajesh Aggarwal has an exceptional track record as a high caliber clinician in bariatric and minimally invasive surgery, a global academic leader in simulation technologies with respect to health professions’ education, a health care innovator through collaborative engagement with engineers, designers, artists and computer scientists, a sought after speaker and educator, and a successful fundraiser.

He undertook his Bachelor’s degree in Social and Political Sciences at the University of Cambridge, and medical school at the Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine, University of London. Subsequently, he completed general surgical residency at Imperial College London.

In 2008 he was awarded a PhD degree in virtual reality technologies for surgical education at Imperial College London, under the mentorship of Professor Ara Darzi, current Director of the Institute of Global Health Innovation at Imperial College London, past Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Department of Health in the United Kingdom, and a member of the House of Lords.

Whilst working at Imperial with Professor Darzi, Rajesh engaged in collaborative work with the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design at the Royal College of Art, and Imperial College Business School, comprising redesign of the cardiac arrest trolley, and the Design out Medical Error (or the DoME project), in addition to projects with industrial partners in the fields of simulation, medical devices and robotics.

Rajesh has continued to maintain an academic and clinical practice, as a Faculty member at Imperial College London, University of Pennsylvania and most recently at McGill University where he was also charged as Director of the Steinberg Centre for Simulation and Interactive Learning. Rajesh was instrumental in developing a strategic plan for the McGill simulation center, based upon research and innovation, and underpinned by a $7.5 million philanthropic donation. He also led the simnovate international summit in 2016, bringing together global luminaries to engage and debate the forward plan for health care innovation, with the proceedings published in a special issue of the British Medical Journal Simulation and Technology Enhanced Learning (BMJ STEL) in 2017.

It is with this background that in July 2017, Rajesh took on his role in strategic business development at Thomas Jefferson University and Jefferson Health, which through deliberate and purposeful engagement with industry partners, utilizes the health system as a living laboratory, to transform health care in its broadest sense. The underlying process is to embed, co-develop and translate novel tools, technologies and platforms, into clinical, academic, reputational and revenue-based impact at Jefferson, which may then be translated to other sites and settings.

HPB & Endocrine Surgeon
Virginia Mason Medical Center, Seattle WA

Dr. Adnan Alseidi is an Attending Surgeon, Hepatopancreatobiliary (HPB) & Endocrine Service in the Department of Surgery at Virginia Mason Medical Center(VMMC) in downtown Seattle WA. His is the director of the clinical HPB fellowship and is the Associate Program Director for the general surgery residency. He also runs the fourth year medical student Sub-internship program at VMMC. Nationally, he is involved in multiple leadership position including being on the board of the Association of Surgical Education, The Fellowship Council, and the Young Fellow Association within the American College of Surgeons.

Dr. Alseidi joined Virginia Mason Medical Center in 2010 and helped develop the endocrine surgical service and expand the HPB clinical pathways for locally advanced pancreas neoplasms. His clinical interests are in expanding surgical therapy to patients with locally advanced pancreas adenocarcinoma, expanding the field of minimally invasive HPB surgery and in particular parenchymal sparing minimally invasive hepatic resections. His research also includes the study of glucose metabolism as it relates to HPB surgery. His none clinical research interest are in surgical training, global assessment of psychomotor skills, and adult education.

He attended medical school at Pennsylvania State University and completed general surgery residency at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Following he served in the United States Navy as a general/Trauma/Thoracic surgeon and was the Co-director of the surgery department in US Naval Hospital Okinawa, Japan. Subsequently to his service, he completed a hepatopancreatobiliary and advanced GI fellowship at Washington University in St. Louis, MO. His none clinical interests are in adult education and he has completed a Master’s Degree in Adult-Surgical Education at Southern Illinois University/UIUC.

Professor of Surgery, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine
Chairman of General Surgery & Co-Director of Hepato-Biliary and Pancreas Program
Mayo Clinic Florida, Jacksonville FL

Dr. Asbun is an Executive Member of the Board of Governors and 2nd Vice-President of the Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons (SAGES) and has also served as a member of the Executive Council of the American Hepato-Pancreatic Biliary Association (AHPBA) in the past. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the American College of Surgeons Multimedia Atlas of Surgery. As SAGES representative he is a Board Member of The G4 Alliance for global surgery

He serves as a member of multiple Committees on various major US surgical societies. Within SAGES, he co-chairs the HPB/ Safe Chole task forces and is member of the of the Program and Finance Committees and the Curriculum Task Force.  He is a past Chair of the Educational resources Committee and the Global Affairs Committee. He has authored over 250 peer-review manuscripts, book chapters and surgical videos.  He has also been author or co-author of over 205 peer-reviewed abstract/poster and presentations at national meetings.  He has been invited as Guest Speaker to multiple National Surgical Meetings and to over 130 International Surgical Meetings in Asia, Europe, Africa, Australia, Central and South America.  He has served as a Director or Faculty in over 65 national and international Minimal Access Surgery courses and Surgical Meetings.  He has received multiple awards as well as Honorary Fellowships in a number of international surgical societies. His publications have been in the areas of minimal access surgery, hepatobiliary, pancreas, and endocrine surgery, as well as basic science research in the field of surgical oncology.

Professor of Surgery and Chair of the Department of Surgery
Amsterdam University Medical Centre, the Netherlands

Dr. Jaap Bonjer’s main fields of interest is surgical innovation, clinical research and education. In 2000, Dr. Bonjer was awarded a Chair in Endoscopic Surgery at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. He developed a multidisciplinary simulation facility, the Skills Lab Erasmus MC, in Rotterdam in 2004.

Dr. Bonjer was Professor of Surgery at Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, from 2004 until 2009 and served as Chair of the Dalhousie and Capital Health Department of Surgery from 2006 through 2009. He initiated the Nova Scotia Surgical Network and founded in 2007 an inter-professional learning environment, the Skills Centre for Health Sciences, in Halifax.

Dr. Bonjer is founder and CEO of the Amsterdam Skills Centre (ASC) for Health Sciences which will open in January 2019. The ASC will train more than 3,000 health care professionals per year. The ASC develops in collaboration with international partners a New Way of Learning; a scalable, digital and mobile learning environment enabling a shortened and sustainable curriculum for health care professionals worldwide.

Dr. Bonjer completed a Health-MBA program at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam in 2014. He is Associate Editor of Surgical Endoscopy, President of the European Association of Endoscopic Surgery (2017 – 2019) and President Elect of the Dutch Society of Surgery.

Dr. Bonjer is initiator and principal investigator of the COLOR, COLOR II and COLOR  III trials in patients with colorectal cancer. Centres throughout Europe, North America and Asia participate in these trials. Dr. Bonjer has published more than 240 peer reviewed scientific manuscripts (h-index 50) and edited five surgical textbooks.

Professor of Surgery and Section Chief of Minimally Invasive Surgery
Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis MO

Dr. L. Michael Brunt is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons and the American Surgical Association.  He has been President of the Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons (SAGES) and initiated the SAGES Safe Cholecystectomy Task Force which he now leads and which has the goal of reducing bile duct injuries for this common procedure.

Dr. Brunt is on the editorial boards of Surgical Endoscopy and the Annals of Surgery and has over 225 publications.  His clinical and research interests are in outcomes studies in laparoscopic surgery including safety in cholecystectomy, adrenal surgery, sports hernias, and surgical education. Dr. Brunt has received the Distinguished Clinician Award from Washington University and the Philip J. Wolfson Outstanding Teacher Award from the Association for Surgical Education.  For several years he has been listed in the Best Doctors in America and in the Guide to America’s Top Surgeons.

HPB Surgeon
Christchurch Hospital, New Zealand

Since 2005 Dr. Saxon Connor has worked as a HPB Surgeon at Christchurch hospital, New Zealand.

After completing his RACS training in NZ he spent 4 years in United Kingdom completing HPB training (Liverpool and Edinburgh). His research interests have focused on clinical issues including safe cholecystectomy, bile duct injury, minimally invasive pancreatic necrosectomy, enhanced recovery surgery and post pancreatectomy pancreatitis. He is the e-clinical health lead for the Canterbury district health board with the aim of helping to establish a digital health system. He has been involved with tech companies bringing electronic workflow solutions for clinicians from concept to production. Since 2008 he has been on the editorial team of HPB and sits on editorial boards of the World Journal of Surgery and British Journal of Surgery. He is on council of APHPBA and the research committee of the IHPBA. He is an e-tutor for HPB module of the University of Edinburgh online ChM programme. He has published 125 peer reviewed articles including, book chapters and videos.

Professor and Helen Shedd Keith Chair Emeritus of Surgery
Rush University Medical Center, Chicago IL

Dr. Daniel Deziel is a Past President of SAGES.

Chief of General Surgery
St Luke’s University Health Network, Bethlehem and Allentown PA

Dr. McDonald was trained at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation followed by a fellowship in Gastrointestinal Surgery at the Lahey Clinic in Boston.  Her practice continues to encompass General Surgery with an emphasis on minimally invasive surgery, endoscopy and robotic surgery.  She has as Masters in Education for Health Professionals from Johns Hopkins University and has an interest in “Residents as Educators,” and is the Surgical Clerkship Director for St Luke’s/Temple Medical School.  She has three children, two of which were Division I athletes, and now they work in conservation, saving our world in water conservation.  A member of several committees at SAGES, currently Dr. McDonald is member of the Ethics Committee and the Global Health Committee of SAGES and has participated in many educational-oriented surgical mission trips throughout the world.  She is a American Board of Surgery Examiner.

Professor of Surgical Sciences
The University of Edinburgh, Scotland UK

Professor Parks qualified from Queens University Belfast in 1989. He pursued his surgical training in Northern Ireland and then undertook a clinical fellowship in HPB surgery at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh. He was appointed a Senior Lecturer in Surgery and Honorary Consultant Surgeon in the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh in 1999, was subsequently promoted to Reader in Surgery in 2006 and was awarded a person chair as Professor of Surgical Sciences at the University of Edinburgh in 2010.
Professor Parks has a specialist interest in hepatobiliary and pancreatic surgery. He has published more than 160 papers, written 39 book chapters and has authored / edited 6 surgical textbooks. He has been awarded several prestigious prizes and travelling fellowships, and has given a number of eponymous lectures.

Professor Parks is currently President of the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland (ASGBI). He is also Deputy Director of Medicine, NHS Education for Scotland (NES); Immediate Past-President of the Great Britain & Ireland Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Association (GBIHPBA); Council member of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (RCSEd); Executive Council member and Chairman of the Scientific Programme Committee of the International Hepato-Pancreatico–Biliary Association (IHPBA); Council member and Chairman of the Membership Committee of the European-African Hepato-Pancreatico-Biliary Association (E-AHPBA) and Past-Director of the James IV Association.

Associate Professor of Surgery
Sidney Kimmel Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia PA

Dr. Pucci is the Co-Director of the Advanced Gastrointestinal Surgery Fellowship and Associate Director of Undergraduate Education within the Department of Surgery.  He specializes in minimally invasive complex pancreaticobiliary and upper gastrointestinal surgery. His clinical interests include the prevention of biliary injury during cholecystectomy and the management of complex and difficult biliary disease.

Professor and Chief of the Division of General Surgery and Surgical Oncology
University of Arizona, College of Medicine, Tucson AZ

Dr. Riall joined the faculty after 10 years at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, TX. Her clinical expertise is in general and pancreaticobiliary surgery, including pancreatic and periampullary cancer, acute and chronic pancreatitis, gallstone disease, gastrointestinal cancer, and general surgery. She has extensive expertise in comparative effectiveness and health services research. Her research has focused on the quality of cancer care and the care of surgical patients. Dr. Riall has been instrumental in developing and implementing critical pathways to streamline care, improve outcomes, and decrease cost of patients undergoing pancreatic, gallbladder, and colorectal surgery.

Chief of Minimally Invasive and Bariatric Surgery
Vice Chair of Education – Department of Surgery
Indiana University School of Medicine, Charlotte NC

Dr Stefanidis obtained his medical school degree from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece and his dissertation from the University of Bonn in Germany. He completed his general surgery residency at the University of Texas Health Sciences Center in San Antonio, and his minimally invasive bariatric surgery fellowship at Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, NC.

Dr Stefanidis is a board member of SAGES and chairs its guidelines committee. He has been instrumental in orchestrating the evidence review and recommendation formulation for the Bile Duct Injury consensus conference.

Dr. Stefanidis has published over 150 peer-reviewed papers, and has won several competitive research grants and awards. He has a strong interest in guideline development for surgeons, methods for improvement of surgical performance, surgical simulation, clinical outcomes and patient safety.