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.
Incorporating Three-Dimensional Visualization in Breast Reconstruction
Principal Investigator
Carrie Stern MD
Carrie Stern MD
Year
2020
2020
Institution
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK)
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK)
Funding Mechanism
Research Fellowship
Research Fellowship
Focus Area
Breast (Cosmetic / Reconstructive)
Breast (Cosmetic / Reconstructive)
Abstract
Project Summary: Over the last decade, there has been a shift from physician-driven to patient-centered models, with patients more involved in the decision-making process about their care. This type of collaborative participation has been shown to increase trust, improve realistic perceptions of treatment expectations, and improve clinical and patient-reported outcomes. The first step in this process is providing patients with education and not merely information. Yet most of the education provided to women referred for breast reconstruction is not effective. This is supported by the fact that patient satisfaction with information on the BREAST-Q, a patient-reported outcome measure developed at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK), is consistently low, compared with other domains. Three-dimensional (3D) interactive technology has been shown to be a valuable tool in patient education, particularly at the point of care, yet there remains paucity in the application of this type of educational tool in plastic surgery. Despite the benefits that incorporating this type of technology can have on patient education and the potential impact it can have on outcomes, to date there is no tool that has been developed to address this need. The proposed project will focus on using 3D technology to develop an interactive patient-specific tool to better educate our patients. Working closely with biomedical engineers, we will create an interactive 3D tool demonstrating one type of breast reconstruction, specifically abdominally based free flaps. We will then conduct a pilot study using the 3D interactive educational tool among a select group of patients. This project will serve as the foundation for patient-centered education going forward and the first step in building a 3D interactive procedural platform for breast reconstruction. Once the interactive 3D education tool is developed, we will conduct a randomized controlled trial to better define the impact the interactive 3D education tool has on patient satisfaction with information and how that affects clinical outcomes. Impact Statement: For most cancer survivors, the process of breast reconstruction is overwhelming. Most women referred for consultation are still struggling with their recent breast cancer diagnosis. For women who are pursuing risk-reducing surgery, that decision too comes with emotional burden. During initial consultation, women are typically bombarded with information on a myriad of surgical options that health professionals struggle to describe and patients struggle to understand because it requires three-dimensional (3D) understanding of the patient's own anatomy. Using 3D technology in the form of interactive procedure-specific animation during consultation provides a visual aid that empowers both the surgeon and patient to set expectations and make informed decisions about their reconstructive options
Project Summary: Over the last decade, there has been a shift from physician-driven to patient-centered models, with patients more involved in the decision-making process about their care. This type of collaborative participation has been shown to increase trust, improve realistic perceptions of treatment expectations, and improve clinical and patient-reported outcomes. The first step in this process is providing patients with education and not merely information. Yet most of the education provided to women referred for breast reconstruction is not effective. This is supported by the fact that patient satisfaction with information on the BREAST-Q, a patient-reported outcome measure developed at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK), is consistently low, compared with other domains. Three-dimensional (3D) interactive technology has been shown to be a valuable tool in patient education, particularly at the point of care, yet there remains paucity in the application of this type of educational tool in plastic surgery. Despite the benefits that incorporating this type of technology can have on patient education and the potential impact it can have on outcomes, to date there is no tool that has been developed to address this need. The proposed project will focus on using 3D technology to develop an interactive patient-specific tool to better educate our patients. Working closely with biomedical engineers, we will create an interactive 3D tool demonstrating one type of breast reconstruction, specifically abdominally based free flaps. We will then conduct a pilot study using the 3D interactive educational tool among a select group of patients. This project will serve as the foundation for patient-centered education going forward and the first step in building a 3D interactive procedural platform for breast reconstruction. Once the interactive 3D education tool is developed, we will conduct a randomized controlled trial to better define the impact the interactive 3D education tool has on patient satisfaction with information and how that affects clinical outcomes. Impact Statement: For most cancer survivors, the process of breast reconstruction is overwhelming. Most women referred for consultation are still struggling with their recent breast cancer diagnosis. For women who are pursuing risk-reducing surgery, that decision too comes with emotional burden. During initial consultation, women are typically bombarded with information on a myriad of surgical options that health professionals struggle to describe and patients struggle to understand because it requires three-dimensional (3D) understanding of the patient's own anatomy. Using 3D technology in the form of interactive procedure-specific animation during consultation provides a visual aid that empowers both the surgeon and patient to set expectations and make informed decisions about their reconstructive options
Biography
Carrie Stern, MD is Assistant Attending in the Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK), with a joint appointment as Assistant Professor of Surgery at Weill Cornell Medical College. Dr. Stern specializes in reconstruction following surgery for cancers of the breast, head, and neck. Her research focuses on the integration of 3D imaging technology in reconstructive plastic surgery and patient-reported outcomes to improve care and quality of life. After receiving her medical degree from New York University, Dr. Stern completed a combined general surgery/plastic surgery residency at Montefiore Medical Center of Albert Einstein College of Medicine and a microsurgery fellowship at MSK. Throughout her training, she distinguished herself with outstanding productivity, helping to develop interactive virtual tools for training, surgical planning, and patient education and authoring about 30 peer-reviewed publications. In 2015, Dr. Stern founded MirrorMe3D, a health technology start-up that provides plastic surgeons with customized, patient-specific 3D printed models and soft tissue guides that are used for surgical planning and as intraoperative references in the operating room. In 2017, she was named among the 40 most influential women in 3D printing by All3DP, the world’s leading magazine on 3D printing. Dr. Stern is frequently invited to speak on 3D printing applications in surgery at numerous conferences worldwide.
Carrie Stern, MD is Assistant Attending in the Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK), with a joint appointment as Assistant Professor of Surgery at Weill Cornell Medical College. Dr. Stern specializes in reconstruction following surgery for cancers of the breast, head, and neck. Her research focuses on the integration of 3D imaging technology in reconstructive plastic surgery and patient-reported outcomes to improve care and quality of life. After receiving her medical degree from New York University, Dr. Stern completed a combined general surgery/plastic surgery residency at Montefiore Medical Center of Albert Einstein College of Medicine and a microsurgery fellowship at MSK. Throughout her training, she distinguished herself with outstanding productivity, helping to develop interactive virtual tools for training, surgical planning, and patient education and authoring about 30 peer-reviewed publications. In 2015, Dr. Stern founded MirrorMe3D, a health technology start-up that provides plastic surgeons with customized, patient-specific 3D printed models and soft tissue guides that are used for surgical planning and as intraoperative references in the operating room. In 2017, she was named among the 40 most influential women in 3D printing by All3DP, the world’s leading magazine on 3D printing. Dr. Stern is frequently invited to speak on 3D printing applications in surgery at numerous conferences worldwide.