Grants Funded
Grant applicants for the 2024 cycle requested a total of nearly $3 million dollars. The PSF Study Section Subcommittees of Basic & Translational Research and Clinical Research evaluated more than 100 grant applications on the following topics:
The PSF awarded research grants totaling over $650,000 dollars to support more than 20 plastic surgery research proposals.
ASPS/PSF leadership is committed to continuing to provide high levels of investigator-initiated research support to ensure that plastic surgeons have the needed research resources to be pioneers and innovators in advancing the practice of medicine.
Research Abstracts
Search The PSF database to have easy access to full-text grant abstracts from past PSF-funded research projects 2003 to present. All abstracts are the work of the Principal Investigators and were retrieved from their PSF grant applications. Several different filters may be applied to locate abstracts specific to a particular focus area or PSF funding mechanism.
A Shared-Decision Tool to Improve Communication About Breast Reconstruction
Ronnie Shammas MD
2019
Duke University Medical Center
Pilot Research Grant
Breast (Cosmetic / Reconstructive), Economics/Quality/Outcomes
Approximately 110,000 women underwent breast reconstruction (BR) in 2017. Studies suggest, however, that the decision to undergo BR is poorly informed, and patients differ from their physicians regarding expectations about the perioperative experience and ultimate aesthetic outcomes. Women undergoing BR are often dissatisfied with the additional number of surgeries required and may over-estimate their post reconstructive well-being. Pre-operative discussions and available shared-decision aids often center around the initial reconstructive surgery, rather than post-reconstructive outcomes, which may account for a lack of clear and accurate expectations of the aesthetic and physical results of surgery. This allows for a misalignment between patient values and expectations, ultimately serving as a barrier to high-quality shared-decision making. The objective of this grant is to develop a shared decision-making aid to facilitate communication about post-reconstructive expectations between patients and their plastic surgeons; thus, improving patient satisfaction with the perioperative experience and the ultimate aesthetic outcome of BR. To this end, we will develop and pilot the use of a self-administered online tool (“RECONJOINT”) for breast reconstruction based on a conjoint analysis (CA) model. CA can help patients navigate complex decisions by determining the relative value that individuals place on various aspects of treatments to improve decision quality and reduce decisional conflict and regret. To accomplish this goal, we propose three aims: Aim 1: To utilize structured interviews to characterize patient and surgeon expectations of breast reconstruction; Aim 2: To develop the RECONJOINT shared decision-making tool to evaluate patient treatment preferences; Aim 3: To pilot the RECONJOINT tool in patients undergoing breast reconstruction. This proposal is innovative since it is the first effort towards using CA as a shared decision-making tool to align patient and provider expectations in the perioperative period of BR. Our central hypothesis is that RECONJOINT will improve patient expectations around breast reconstruction, improve high quality shared decision-making, and ultimately, improve patient-centered satisfaction. These findings will help secure extramural funding to support a larger clinical trial to assess the broader effects of utilizing RECONJOINT to improve patient satisfaction following breast reconstruction.
