Grants We Funded
Grant applicants for the 2023 cycle requested a total of nearly $4 million dollars. The PSF Study Section Subcommittees of Basic & Translational Research and Clinical Research evaluated nearly 140 grant applications on the following topics:
The PSF awarded research grants totaling over $1 million dollars to support nearly 30 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 new patient-reported outcome measure for body contouring
Andrea Pusic MD, MHS, FACS, FRCSC
2009
Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research
National Endowment for Plastic Surgery Grant
Cosmetic, Other
Cosmetic body contouring surgery is one of the most rapidly growing fields within plastic surgery. In addition, large numbers of bariatric surgery patients are electing to have body contouring following massive weight loss. In both cosmetic and post-bariatric surgery patients, body shape deformities can have a significant negative impact on a patient's physical and mental well-being. Body contouring procedures have the potential to improve or restore body image and health-related quality of life (QOL).
Demonstration of the potential benefits of body contouring procedures requires careful evaluation of all surgery-related outcomes from the patients' perspective. Thus, well-developed, psychometrically sound, patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) are needed. We therefore seek to develop a new PROM that can be used to measure patient satisfaction and QOL in patients who undergo cosmetic or post-bariatric body contouring surgery.
For this study, we have assembled a research team of QOL experts with expertise in questionnaire development and plastic surgeons with clinical expertise in the treatment of body-contouring patients. We propose to complete the qualitative component of the questionnaire development process - formation of a conceptual model and item generation. The conceptual model and preliminary versions of the questionnaire will be developed from three sources: 1) In-depth qualitative interviews with approximately 50 patients who have had or are waiting to have body-contouring procedures of the abdomen, back, arms, and legs; 2) our systematic review of the body-contouring literature(already performed); and 3) expert panel including plastic surgeons and QOL researchers.
Once completed, a PROM for body contouring will provide surgeons and patients with high-quality data on surgical outcomes. This will lead to improvements in surgical techniques, patient selection, patient education and advocacy.
Dr. Pusic is a reconstructive surgeon at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. She performed her general surgery residency at Dalhousie University and Plastic Surgery residency at McGill University. She completed a Master’s degree in Epidemiology at Johns Hopkins University in 1997 and a research fellowship at Memorial-Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in 2001. Her research interest lies in assessing patient reported outcomes in plastic surgery patients. With grant support from the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS), she has developed a new questionnaire, the BREAST-Q, which measures satisfaction and quality of life outcomes among breast surgery patients. This questionnaire examines body image, psychological, social, sexual, and physical function as well as satisfaction with the process of care. She is also involved in research to measure patient expectations in breast reconstruction. This NIH funded study is ultimately aimed at improving patient education and promoting shared medical decision-making. Most recently, with further grant support from the ASPS, her research team is developing a new patient-reported outcome measure for facial aesthetic patients--the FACE-Q.