News & Events

Sanziana A. Roman, M.D., FACS, professor of surgery and Dean's Diversity Leader for Leadership Equity and Inclusion at UCSF, was interviewed by the School of Medicine (SOM) in conjunction with "Global Diversity Awareness Month", October 2018. Differences Matter is a multi-year, multi-faceted School of Medicine initiative designed to make UCSF the most diverse, equitable and inclusive academic medical system in the country. Here is the full interview by Lesley Snyder, originally published on the SOM website: Tell me a bit about your background. I am very thankful for where I am and what I [...]

Insoo Suh, M.D., FACS, assistant professor of endocrine surgery and noted surgical innovator, presented his experiences using "scarless" transoral endoscopic thyroid and parathyroid surgery to a national audience at the 2018 meeting of the American Association of Endocrine Surgeons (AAES). Minimally invasive and remote access thyroid surgery has been evolving with the transoral endoscopic thyroidectomy vestibular approach (TOETVA) emerging as a true "scarless" thyroidectomy. Dr. Suh helped pioneer this technique and is among the first surgeons in the U.S. to utililze it.  Dr. Suh also [...]

The Department of Surgery welcomes endocrine surgeon Sanziana A. Roman, M.D., FACS to the faculty as a professor of Surgery in the Section of Endocrine Surgery, Division of General Surgery. Dr. Roman also has been appointed Director of Learning and Teaching in the Procedural Specialties and Dean's Diversity Leader for Leadership Equity and Inclusion in the School of Medicine at UCSF.  Dr. Roman's clinical interest is in endocrine and minimally invasive surgery, with a focus in thyroid and adrenal diseases, including pediatric and adult endocrine tumors. She is one of only a few high-volume [...]

The UCSF Howard C. Naffziger Surgical Society, the alumni society of graduates of the UCSF General Surgery Residency Program and associate members, held its 2018 meeting May 10-11 in San Francisco. Proceedings kicked with a Women in Surgery event at the home of Shelley Marks, the past President of the Society. The Naffziger Day Symposium generated substantive discussion of the history and future of surgical training and practice, while celebrating the common lineage of graduates of the UCSF Department of Surgery. Symposium speakers included UCSF Department of Surgery Chair Julie Ann Sosa, [...]

The UCSF Howard C. Naffziger Surgical Society, the alumni society for graduates of the the UCSF General Surgery Residency Program and associate members, will hold its 2nd annual "Naffziger Society Day" symposium on Friday May 11th in San Francisco.  Naffziger Society Day brings together multiple generations of UCSF surgeons including former chief residents, surgeons in academic medicine, those with community practices, and retired surgeons. The symposium generates substantive discussion of the history and future of surgical training and practice, while celebrating the common lineage of [...]

Quan-Yang Duh M.D., professor and chief of the section of endocrine surgery at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and outgoing President of the Pacific Coast Surgical Association, told a rapt audience of attendees at the organization's annual meeting of his journey as an immigrant, his rescue by a Greek family in 1971, and his work as endocrine surgeon, encapsulated in an inspirational story spanning multiple cultures. Dr. Duh was warmly introduced by fellow UCSF endocrine surgeon and medical historian Wen T. Shen, MD, MA. Below are thoughts and reactions of Dr. Duh's friends, [...]

Julie Ann Sosa, MD, MA, FACS will be the new chair of the UCSF Department of Surgery, effective April 1, 2018. She will also hold the Leon Goldman, MD, Distinguished Professorship in Surgery. Dr. John P. Roberts, who has led the department as interim chair since October 2016, will continue in his leadership role until Dr. Sosa's arrival.  Dr. Sosa is currently a professor of Surgery and of Medicine (Oncology) and chief of Endocrine Surgery at the Duke University School of Medicine. She also serves as director of the Surgical Center for Outcomes Research (SCORES), leads the Endocrine [...]

Carolyn D. Seib, M.D., MAS, a clinical investigator and member of the UCSF endocrine surgery faculty, has been awarded a RAP (Resource Allocation Program) seed grant by the Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center to study postoperative cognitive dysfunction in elderly patients undergoing surgery for thyroid cancer. Dr. Seib's project is part of her ongoing research focused on individualizing the surgical care of older adults. With increasing evidence supporting the surveillance of small, low-risk papillary thyroid cancers, the decision of whether to manage thyroid cancer operatively [...]

A new research study shows that patient frailty should be assessed in preoperative planning for surgery in older adults, even for common ambulatory general surgery operations. The study, led by principal investigator and lead author, Carolyn D. Seib, M.D., MAS, a general and endocrine surgeon at UCSF, was reported on in the journal JAMA Surgery and highlighted by the NY Times in a subsequent article. Importantly, the study found that frailty is more closely associated with the risk of complications than  chronological age. It has implications for both treatment planning and informed consent [...]

Courtney A. Green, M.D., research fellow in the General Surgery Residency program, has been awarded a CSERT (Center for Excellence in Surgical Education, Research and Training) grant from the Association for Surgical Education (ASE) Foundation. Her research project is entitled, "Investigation into the Perceptual Expertise of a Robotic Surgeon: How do we learn to feel what we see?" Surgical education grants are among the most difficult to obtain. Moreover, this grant has historically been awarded to faculty affiliated with academic institutions, underscoring Dr. Green's achievement here as a [...]

Quan-Yang Duh M.D., professor and chief of endocrine surgery at UCSF, and a nationally and internationally recognized leader in the field, is the recipient of the 2017 Paul Starr Award from the  American Thyroid Association (ATA). The Paul Starr Award Lecture recognizes an outstanding contributor to clinical thyroidology. Dr. Duh delivered the 2017 lecture for this award entitled, "Technical and Technological Advances that Changed Thyroid Surgery" on October 20th at the ATA annual meeting in Victoria, British Columbia. Here is the full text of the award announcement. October 16, 2017—The [...]

The Haile T. Debas Academy of Medical Educators presented seven Department of Surgery faculty with the Excellence in Teaching Award for 2017 at a ceremony on September 11th at the UCSF School of Nursing, held in conjunction with the Academy's induction of new members. The Academy's Excellence in Teaching Awards are peer-nominated, and honor outstanding front-line teachers of medical students, residents, and fellows who often go unrecognized. These teachers create and encourage an intellectually stimulating environment that promotes critical thinking and learning.       Warren J. [...]

UCSF endocrine surgeons Insoo Suh, M.D. and Quan-Yang Duh M.D. performed the institution's first "scarless" thyroidectomy – removal of the thyroid gland – on April 17th at UCSF Medical Center at Mount Zion, the first surgeons in the western U.S. and among the first in the world to perform the surgery with a new technique using small incisions in the mouth and leaving no visible surgical scar in the neck.  "The procedure was developed due to increased demand and emphasis on minimizing the visible evidence of surgery for patients", said Suh. "For many patients, a scar on the front of the neck [...]

Eric Nakakura, M.D., Ph.D., Associate Professor of Surgery at UCSF and a leading authority on neuroendocrine tumors of the gastrointestinal tract and pancreas, is among a team of researchers awarded $1.2M grant by the Neuroendocrine Tumor Research Foundation (NETRF) to elucidate the causes of small intestinal neuroendocrine tumors (SI-NETs). Dr. Nakakura said the research would help to unlock the mysteries of the disease and lead to more effective potentially curative treatments: "This project arose from unexpected clinical observations of a rare disease, which has puzzled all for over a [...]

James Fallows, national correspondent for The Atlantic, recently wrote about the death of comedian Garry Shandling, noting that he suffered from hyperparathyroidism, a condition that, if left untreated, can raise the risk of having a heart attack and other serious medical conditions. Fallows' piece was both personal and educational, laying out the hazards of delaying treatment, as he himself did by putting off surgery for many years. Fallows ultimately consulted with Quan-Yang Duh M.D. (pictured right) at UCSF Endocrine Surgery and Oncology about his condition. Excerpts from the Atlantic [...]

MedicalResearch.com recently interviewed Quan-Yang Duh M.D. (pictured first), Chief of the Section of Endocrine Surgery, Division of General Surgery, at UCSF, on the differences in etiology of unilateral vs. bilateral incidentalomas.  What we found in our study was that although the possible subclinical diseases were the same – hypercortisolism and pheochromocytoma, the probabilities were different. The patients with bilateral incidentalomas were more likely to have subclinical Cushing's and less likely to have pheochromocytomas than those with unilateral incidentalomas. Medical [...]

"A specific gene mutation may be useful in predicting the level of aggression of thyroid cancer and help guide treatment options and follow-up care, according to new study findings. The mutation, called BRAF V600E, is a genetic alteration in the BRAF oncogene, a modified gene believed to cause cancer. ......."