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.
Patient Reported Outcomes Following Upper Extremity Injury
Jeffrey Friedrich MD
2010
University of Washington
Pilot Research Grant
Hand or Upper Extremity, Other
Patient reported outcomes (PRO's) that are relevant to and valid for patients who have sustained injuries to the upper extremity are needed to characterize the effects of these injuries, and to allow standardization of future research of the upper extremity. The purpose of this project is to develop an upper extremity specific PRO instrument for patients who have sustained injury to the hand or arm. The instrument developed will be valuable in determining the effects of upper extremity conditions on individual patients and society as a whole.
The proposed project will be conducted in two parts. The first portion will be the assembly of an expert panel. This panel will assimilate and organize multiple survey items regarding function of the upper extremity. These items will come from the NIH Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) physical function bank as well as existing upper extremity surveys such as the Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder and Hand (DASH) and the Michigan Hand Questionnaire (MHQ). These items will be combined and distilled to approximately 40 items that are felt to be pertinent and applicable to patients with upper extremity injury.
The second portion of the project will be cognitive interviews with patients who have sustained upper extremity injury. During these interviews, each patient will be administered each item generated by the expert panel, and feedback regarding clarity and answerability of the items will be elucidated. Based on patient feedback, the items will be further revised to then generate an item bank suitable for large-scale administration. This qualitative project will have potential benefit for plastic surgeons, especially those practicing hand surgery. This will be the first step in standardizing outcomes studies for upper extremity conditions. Further, this will allow the development of patient reported outcome tools that entail less respondent burden.
Jeffrey B. Friedrich, MD, MC, is a professor in the Division of Plastic Surgery at the University of Washington whose clinical practice includes adult and pediatric hand and wrist surgery, as well as complex lower extremity and urologic reconstruction. He is passionate about teaching and serves as program director of the UW Plastic Surgery Residency. His research interests center around surgical education, patient-reported outcomes, and patient/provider communication. He obtained a Master’s Degree in Communications from the University of Washington in 2017. He has held multiple leadership positions with the American Council of Academic Plastic Surgeons, the American Association of Hand Surgeons, the American Society for Surgery of the Hand, the Washington Society of Plastic Surgeons, and the American College of Surgeons.