HYBRID EVENT: You can participate in person at London, UK or Virtually from your home or work.

6th Edition of Global Conference on Surgery and Anaesthesia

September 15-17, 2025 | Hybrid Event

September 15 -17, 2025 | London, UK
GCSA 2022

Driving clinical and quality projects with inclusion of equity principles

Vanita Ahuja, Speaker at Surgery Conferences
Yale School of Medicine, United States
Title : Driving clinical and quality projects with inclusion of equity principles

Abstract:

Objective: To propose a new framework to design and implement quality improvement within research projects.

Backgrounds: The design and implementation of resident-driven clinical research quality improvement projects has become increasingly complex. There needs to be a paradigm on how the best way to approach them with a foundation of equity principles into the design.

Methods: We propose using the systematic seven-step model to guide research projects and the SMART template question method to conceive the clinical research questions.

Results: We have used the seven-step model led by a resident team to improve on perioperative processes. The two examples which has been beneficial has been reducing surgical site infection and improving perioperative care. Our monthly dashboard has the rate of surgical site infection and includes other metrics like race to make sure that everyone benefits from the changes introduced. The next project we are working on is making the peri-operative care more agile and standardised.

Conclusion: Our model provides a practical approach to guiding mentors and residents in their pursuit of quality improvement projects. The application has been successfully employed in decreasing wound infection and peri-operative optimization with introduction of dashboards to show success with inclusion of equity as a variable.
 

Biography:

Vanita Ahuja is the Chief of General Surgery at the Connecticut Healthcare System-Veterans Affairs, and is the Surgery Quality Liaison for Yale Surgery Residency Program. Dr. Ahuja earned her medical degree from Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences located in Bethesda, Maryland. She then attended Portsmouth Naval Medical Center in Portsmouth, Virginia, where she completed her internship. After completing her internship, Dr. Ahuja went on to complete her residency, which she completed at Johns Hopkins Hospital, located in Baltimore, Maryland. In addition, Dr. Ahuja is also a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons. Dr. Ahuja most recently was the Director of the surgical residency program at Sinai Hospital in Baltimore. Dr. Ahuja also led the Pennsylvania Consortium ACS National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP) and serves as a Consultant for the American Board of Surgery. Dr. Ahuja is affiliated with Yale University and VA Connecticut Healthcare System. She has more than 40 peer-reviewed publications and is reviewer for multiple surgical journals.

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