The 31st Chung Research Day took place on November 3, 2025. It was an inspiring celebration of innovation and research excellence in the Department of Surgery.
We welcomed Dr. Robert Brownstone as our 2025 Chung Lecturer. Dr. Brownstone is the Head of Neurosurgery at the University College London Queen Square Institute of Neurology. His mechanistic research focuses on how the brain and spinal cord control movement, and how the responsible neural circuits go awry in diseases that affect movement. He aims to bi-directionally translate from bedside to bench to bedside to reduce neurological symptoms that impair quality of life. To this end, he is a co-founder of Sania Therapeutics Inc aimed at developing specific gene therapies to treat neurological symptoms. He is a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, and a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences. His lecture, “in the pause, knowledge is born,” invited the audience to reflect on the value of stillness and curiosity in discovery — reminding us that innovation often arises in moments of observation and reflection.
The Chung Research Day brought together faculty, residents, fellows, and students from across and beyond the Department of Surgery to showcase the breadth of surgical research at UBC. The day featured plenary and rapid-fire sessions, with engaging discussions on emerging surgical innovations, clinical outcomes, and translational science. It was a wonderful opportunity to connect, celebrate our achievements, and reflect on the collaborative spirit that drives innovation across the department.
As is tradition, we concluded the day with a delightful dinner and reception at the University Golf Club, providing a perfect setting for networking and informal discussions. The reception included a Department Awards Ceremony and the recipients are highlighted below. A sincere thank-you as well to our faculty mentors and attendees for making this year’s Chung Day a success.
A heartfelt thank you to our judges and moderators:
Judges
- Dr. Robert Brownstone, Chung Lecturer
- Dr. Zhenwei Ma, Plastic Surgery
- Dr. Michael Peacock, Radiation Oncology
- Dr. Eric Webber, Pediatric Surgery
Session Chairs
- Dr. Rachel Liu-Hennessey, General Surgery
- Dr. Eitan Prisman, Otolaryngology
- Dr. Jenna-Lynn Senger, Plastic Surgery
- Dr. Rola Ajjawi, Centre for Health Education Scholarship
- Dr. Michael Peacock, Radiation Oncology
Congratulations to our Chung Research Day award winners:
Best Plenary Presentations
Hedi Zhao, Scaphoid Advanced Fixation Equipment (SAFE) – A Novel Approach to Scaphoid Fracture Management, Plastic Surgery
Authors: Henry Zhao, Ashvin Moro, Matthew Hickey, Alexander Seal, Nicholas Carr, Antony Hodgson
Jamie Kwon, Novel Intraoperative 3D Specimen Scanning to Optimize Postoperative Radiation Therapy, Otolaryngology
Authors: Jamie Kwon, Chayce Ross, Sarah Hamilton, Matthew Chan, Samantha Lloyd, Bradford Gill, Eitan Prisman
Muhammad Uzair Khalid, Can Artificial Intelligence Replace the Rectal Cancer Multidisciplinary Conference? A Single-Center Study, General Surgery
Authors: Muhammad Uzair Khalid, Charbel El-Kefraoui, Alina Wang, Julian Wang, Terry Phang, Carl Brown, Amandeep Ghuman, Manoj Raval, Ahmer Azhar Karimuddin
Best Short Oral Presentations – Session A
Jonathan Chan, Root Cause Analysis of Omissions and Delays in the Initiation of Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy in Eligible Patients with Breast Cancer, Radiation Oncology
Authors: Jonathan Chan, Jaimie Lee, Kathryn Isaac, Alan Nichol
Alexandra Donaldson, Enhancing Documentation Compliance in Esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD) for Esophageal Cancer, General Surgery / Thoracic Surgery
Authors: Allie Donaldson, Hassan Arishi, Raneem Alrouji, Ahmad Ashrafi, Tayne Bong
Best Short Oral Presentations – Session B
Frances Scheepers, The Power of Pretend: Caregiver Perspectives on Sham Feeding for Infants with Long Gap Esophageal Atresia, Pediatric Surgery
Authors: Frances Scheepers, Sela Grays, Marianne Vidler, Shahrzad Joharifard
Amelie Marshall, Virtual Surgical Planning for Intraoperative Dental Implant Placement in Head and Neck Reconstruction, Otolaryngology – Head & Neck Surgery
Authors: Amelie Marshall, Cassidy Tizzard, Eitan Prisman
Best Graphical Abstracts
Stephanie Quon, Evaluating Online YouTube Videos for Hodgkin Lymphoma Patient Education Radiation Oncology
Authors: Stephanie Quon, Sandy Lum-Wang, Paris-Ann Ingledew
Alexander Rebchuk, Association Between Aneurysmal Subarachnoid Hemorrhage and Risk of Suicide, Neurosurgery
Authors: Alexander Rebchuk, Caroline Kim, Michael A. Rizzuto, Christy Richards, Benjamin Brakel, Charles Haw
Congratulations to our Department of Surgery research award winners:
Dr. H.W. Johnson Early-Career Investigator Award
Dr. Srinivas Raman
Dr. Srinivas Raman is a staff radiation oncologist at BC Cancer Vancouver and a clinical associate professor in the division of radiation oncology, University of British Columbia. He currently serves as the chair for the BC Cancer lung tumor group. Srinivas previously completed a bachelor’s and master’s degree in mechanical engineering, and medical school at University of British Columbia, followed by radiation oncology residency at University of Toronto and a fellowship at BC Cancer Vancouver. His clinical and research interests include evaluation of new radiotherapy techniques for lung and genitourinary cancers, and applications of artificial intelligence to automate radiotherapy workflows and improve patient care.
Dr. R.J. Finley Senior Scholar Award
Dr. Mandeep Tamber
Dr. Mandeep Tamber has a clinical interest in the surgical treatment of pediatric hydrocephalus and epilepsy, and a research interest in prospective clinical studies and knowledge translation research. Recognizing that pediatric surgery is a discipline of rare diseases where the literature is dominated by retrospective singe-centre studies of low methodological rigor, he has focused his research efforts on collaborative clinical investigations leveraging the power of standardized data collection within disease-specific registries. He is an investigator in the Hydrocephalus Clinical Research Network (HCRN), a consortium of major pediatric neurosurgical referral centres that conducts field-changing research into pediatric hydrocephalus. He is also the organizational and scientific lead for HCRN-Quality (HCRNq), a nascent affiliated network of North American pediatric neurosurgical practices created to accelerate knowledge translation, aiming to close the gap between best clinical practices and common clinical practices. He is also leading the development of a prospective multi-centre Canadian pediatric epilepsy surgery registry. The aim of this registry is to characterize patients being considered for epilepsy surgery and their diagnostic and treatment patterns, thereby helping to close critical knowledge gaps. The registry infrastructure will allow investigators to generate data-driven hypotheses, perform high-quality comparative effectiveness research, quantify practice variation and facilitate quality improvement initiatives.
Research Mentorship Award
Dr. Andrea MacNeill
Dr. Andrea MacNeill is a Surgical Oncologist at Vancouver General Hospital and BC Cancer, and a clinical associate professor at the University of British Columbia where she specializes in sarcoma and peritoneal malignancies. She is the founder and principal investigator of the UBC Planetary Healthcare Lab, an interdisciplinary research collaborative dedicated to creating health systems that promote both human and planetary health. She is the Medical Director of Planetary Health for Vancouver Coastal Health and an executive member of CASCADES, a pan-Canadian knowledge mobilization network dedicated to accelerating the transition to low-carbon, sustainable health systems in Canada. She is currently co-chairing a UBC/Yale-led Lancet Commission in sustainable healthcare.