Research By Orthopaedics Trainees Receives Recognition

Basel Touban, MD, a 2018 graduate of the orthopaedic surgery residency program, is first author on a paper titled “Decreased Lean Psoas Cross-Sectional Area is Associated With Increased 1-Year All-Cause Mortality in Male Elderly Orthopaedic Trauma Patients,” that was published in the Journal of Orthopaedic Trauma.

The study received the Orthopaedic Trauma Association Resident Research Grant Award.

Touban is a staff surgeon at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas.

Co-authors from the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences are:

• Mark J. Anders, MD, clinical associate professor of orthopaedics
• Sonja Pavlesen, MD, research assistant professor of orthropaedics
• Jason B. Smoak, MD, orthopaedics resident

Keely Boyle, MD, a chief resident who is in the fifth year of her orthopaedic surgery residency, is first author on a paper titled “Genetic Variation of Propionibacterium Acnes and Association with Orthopedic Shoulder Infections,” that will be published in the Journal of Shoulder and Elbow Surgery.

The study was nominated for the Charles S. Need Award by the American Shoulder and Elbow Surgeons (ASES). Boyle previously was awarded the 2017 ASES Resident Research Award.

Co-authors from the Jacobs School are:

• John K. Crane, MD, PhD, professor of medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases
• Thomas R. Duquin, MD, clinical assistant professor of orthopaedics

Other co-authors from the UB Genomics and Bioinformatics Core in the New York State Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics & Life Sciences are:

• Brandon J. Marzullo, bioinformatics analyst
• Donald Yergeau, PhD, associate director of genomic technologies 

Boyle was also involved in the development of a Surgical Risk Reduction Toolkit (SRR Toolkit) for the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons.

Two years in the making, the online toolkit is designed to help surgeons identify unique risks for their patients and to adopt simple measures or management before surgery that will reduce such risks.

The SRR Toolkit is designed to help identify patient-specific risk factors that can be medically optimized throughout the care episode and provide resources to help the doctor-patient partnership manage and optimize specific risks for each patient.

Boyle designed the toolkit with mentors Alan M. Reznik, MD, associate professor of orthopaedics at Yale University School of Medicine, and Michael S. Pinzur, MD, professor of orthopaedic surgery and rehabilitation at Loyola University Health System in Chicago.