CT Surgery resident takes a top place in AVAS clinical research competition
A cardiothoracic surgery resident’s clinical research paper was among the top three finishers at a competition on trauma at the annual meeting of the Association of Veterans Administration Surgeons (AVAS) in Miami Beach last May. As a result, it will be presented as one of the regional finalists in the American College of Surgeons – Committee on Trauma (ACS-COT) Region 13-VA clinical research competition later this year.
Michael Bolanos, MD
It is the second consecutive year for Mike Bolanos, MD, a third-year Cardiothoracic Surgery resident at the University of Kentucky, to be selected as a top finisher in a resident paper competition at an AVAS annual meeting.
Bolanos submitted an abstract, “Impact of Blood Transfusions on Mortality in the Setting of Blunt Trauma,” concerning a research collaboration with Victor Ferraris, MD, PhD. Upon an AVAS panel review of the abstract, Bolanos was contacted with the suggestion that he enter the paper in a competition focused specifically on trauma.
“I had not submitted the paper for anything except the opportunity to present. But the paper’s subject matter apparently fit the terms of the competition, so I was invited to enter,” Bolanos explained.
He was notified later of his selection as a regional finalist in the ACS-COT Region 13 clinical research competition. As one of the top three in the clinical research category, Bolanos is eligible to present the blunt trauma study at the annual meeting of the ACS Clinical Congress in October 2015.
“Mike did a great job of presenting the information and we will eventually get a publication out of this,” Dr. Ferraris commented. “The manuscript represents a unique evaluation of a large trauma center experience.”
In 2014, Bolanos was the lead author of a paper that took second place in an AVAS resident paper competition at Yale University. This finish, however, was not without a level of irony. According to Bolanos, he didn’t know he had competed and won since he had left the conference before the awards ceremony.
“One day I just got a letter of congratulations that the paper had placed second in Clinical Research,” Bolanos said. The paper, “Identification of patients with postoperative complications who are at risk for failure to rescue” was a collaborative investigation with Ferraris as lead investigator. Besides Bolanos, the other manuscript authors were Jeremiah Martin, MBBCh, FRCSI; Angela Mahan, MD; and Sibu P. Saha, MD, MBA.
The original investigation was subsequently published in the November 2014 issue of JAMA Surgery.
”Even the publication came as a surprise to me,” Bolanos commented. “I was only told that the manuscript would be considered. The journal came out in November and colleagues started congratulating me on getting published. I didn’t know what journal until I got my copy that afternoon.”
In the meantime, Bolanos expressed a great deal of respect and appreciation for the support that the AVAS gave him these past two years.
“The association (AVAS) is a relatively small compared to other national and international groups. But its members include a lot of the ‘heavy-hitters’ in this field. Being a smaller organization, it’s given me a great opportunity to develop connections. Placing in the competitions has been a good side benefit,” Bolanos said.
Contact: Josh Shepherd, jwshep2@uky.edu
