International Collaborative Research Group of Gallbladder Cancer - Gallbladder adenocarcinoma (GBC) is a relatively rare malignancy with high mortality rate due to late-stage discovery. At advanced stages, there are limited treatment options, and most patients develop resistance to chemotherapy. In this study we combined data from Chile, Italy, USA, Japan, Colombia, Norway and Argentina to continue to answer the most important question in GBC. Our aim is to characterize tumor-associated immune cells and immune checkpoint markers and associate them with cancer genomic alterations, clinic-pathological information, and patient survival.
09/01/2021- (PI)
3D-Reconstruction using Artificial Intelligence - Despite the complexity of open and minimally invasive liver (HPB) surgery, practical intraoperative navigation systems are rare in clinical practice today. Combined HPB Surgery with 3D rendering and augmented reality could help to overcome the difficulties of open and laparoscopic HPB surgery in general (enhanced navigation in the three-dimensional space of the liver) and advanced laparoscopic liver surgery specifically. These issues are loss of depth perception, decreased spatial understanding and tactile feedback in the three-dimensional space of the liver, and complicated 3D anatomy without significant outward landmarks. The objective of the present study is to document, assess and analyze surgical cases performed in combination with 3D simulation software.
03/01/2019- (PI)
Management of Bleeding in laparoscopic HPB surgery - Despite the reported advantages of laparoscopic liver surgery and a wide-spread diffusion in Asia and Europe, advanced laparoscopic liver surgery remains practiced at few select institutions in the U.S. Data has shown that the main barrier to a broader acceptance is the concern for an uncontrollable intraoperative bleeding event. The aim of our innovation quality improvement and safety project with Prof. Gayet (IMM, Paris) is to develop an event-initiated checklist to optimize a team-based response to bleeding events. This checklist is akin to checklists in other industries with inherent risk for adverse events and high stress environments (e.g. military, flight industry). To illustrate how this innovative, event-triggered checklist concretely helps to optimize the response to a bleeding event, we have compiled cases into an educational video explaining each step of the simple 4-point checklist. Our aim is to organize team-based training of anesthesia and surgical staff with the checklist after systematic implementation to optimize the response to intraoperative bleeding events.
07/01/2018- (PI)