Surgery Grand Rounds

UBC Department of Surgery Rounds are typically scheduled from 7-8am on the second Wednesday every month from September to June.

**Please note: April, 2026 Room Change: Diamond Health Care Centre 9299. Please note: Elevators will start at 6:55.
The UBC Department of Surgery Grand Rounds is an Accredited Group Learning Activity (Section 1) as defined by the Maintenance of Certification Program of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada.
Evaluation & Attendance Form:

April 8, 2026 | 07:00 AM to 08:00 AM

Title: Applications of AI and Reinforcement Learning Models in Surgery

Presenter: Mahesh Nagarajan, PhD
Senior Associate Dean, Faculty, Professor, Operations and Logistics Division, UBC Sauder School of Business

Dr. Mahesh Nagarajan is the Senior Associate Dean, Research, and the Alumni Chair in Stochastic Optimization at the UBC Sauder School of Business. An expert in healthcare operations management, his research focuses on mathematical modelling to optimize clinical service delivery.

He has collaborated extensively with surgeons across the world to develop dynamic capacity allocation models, specifically aimed at reducing urgency-weighted wait times for elective procedures. His work extends to triage optimization and the responsible integration of AI in medicine. Dr. Nagarajan holds a PhD from the University of Southern California and was recently awarded an honorary Doctor of Business Administration for his global contributions to operations research.

Learning Objectives:

By the end of this session, participants will:

  • Describe the fundamental concepts of artificial intelligence (AI) and reinforcement learning (RL) and explain how these models function in surgical contexts.
  • Identify current applications of AI and RL in surgery
  • Evaluate opportunities for integrating AI and RL into surgical practice and propose potential future use cases to enhance safety, efficiency, and clinical outcomes.

Surgery Grand Rounds Meeting ID: 996 5204 2124, Passcode 042124

One-click Zoom link: https://ubc.zoom.us/j/99652042124?pwd=Z1hPSjFQSEFWczlDOGVHTVNHcTUzZz09

2025/2026 Dates

September 10, 2025 – Dr. Arman Abdalkhani, Undergraduate Surgical Education
October 8, 2024 – Drs. Rola Ajjawi and Faizal Haji, Surgical Education Scholarship
November 12, 2025 – Dr. Andrea Pusic, Patient-Reported Outcomes in Healthcare
December 17, 2025 (Presented jointly with Dept of Orthopedics) – Dr. Brian Kwon, Biomarkers and Biobanking for Spinal Cord Injury and the Translational Research Applications for Orthopaedics
January 14, 2026 – Dr. Ahmer Karimuddin, Strategic Plan Town Hall
February 11, 2026 – Dr. Abraham Alexander, Sharp Shots, Soft Landings:  Toxicity and Disease control with Stereotactic Ablative Radiotherapy (SABR) for localized prostate cancer
March 11, 2026 – Dr. Jason Sutherland, School of Population and Public Health
April 8, 2026 – Dr. Mahesh Nagarajan, Sauder School of Business
May 13, 2026 – Dr. Nadine Caron
June 10, 2026 – From Curiosity to Discovery: Resident & Trainee Research Showcase

Archived Grand Rounds Presentations (Videos)

Access recorded presentations here: UBC Canvas

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Video-recorded Grand Rounds presentations are posted on the UBC’s e-Learning System and accessible with a UBC Campus-Wide Login (CWL) account.