Priti Parikh, Ph.D., will be awarded the Reed Williams Excellence in Innovation in Surgical Education Award at the Association for Surgical Education (ASE) annual conference in San Diego on Friday, April 14. This recognition is overdue and well-deserved.
Parikh has reinvigorated the scholarly output of the department through assisting students, residents, and faculty with their research ideas. As the vice chair for Research Education and Professional Development in the department, Parikh’s responsibilities have grown to include organizing faculty development programs, improving the resident feedback and assessment system, developing a department leadership curriculum for surgery residents, and championing the resident wellbeing initiatives.
Parikh has devised a novel and sustainable approach to improve the output of scholarly work, which includes educational seminars on the conduct of research for entering interns, the process of study thesis generation, and an assessment plan to track the progress of the scholarly activities through annual research milestones. Our expectation is that the Structured Research Curriculum and Milestones will provide our trainees a clear direction, making their research project(s) more manageable while enhancing their overall experience and engagement in research.
Many residents and medical students have benefited from Parikh’s curricular changes with consistent invitations to regional and national meetings to present their scholarly work, which resulted in a significant increase in these presentations from residents (820% increase), students (4,600% increase), and faculty (488% increase). The scholarly output (defined as publications) also increased significantly for residents (59% increase), medical students (225% increase), and faculty (130% increase).
This research curriculum provides opportunities for our learners and promotes the department, the Boonshoft School of Medicine, and the university on a regional and national stage.
