Scientific Meeting
The 2026 Scientific Meeting in Santa Barbara was a great success! From presenters to vendors, to attendees the consensus is that a great time was had by all. Did you miss out on the meeting? Need a recap? Find out who the winners were for some of the events that took place in Santa Barbara.
Jeopardy Winners
The most recent competition took place on Saturday afternoon, January 10th. Residents from Southern California residency programs competed for the coveted Dowden Trophy, as well as bragging rights in what was an educational and highly entertaining event.
The Great Debates of SCCACS Winners
This year’s Great Debates of SCCACS (formerly Battle of the Blades) competition took place Saturday afternoon, January 10th featuring teams from area teaching programs addressing opposite sides of controversial questions in general/minimally invasive surgery.
AND THE WINNERS WERE…
Jasmine Park, MD and Jonathan Zuo, MD
Huntington Hospital (3-Peat champions!)
After a fierce battle, the winners were –
Chrysanthy Ha, MD, MPH and Shawn Steen, MD, FACS, faculty coach
Community Memorial Healthcare
Congratulations to our winners and enjoy bragging rights for the year!
Surgeon-in-Training Research Winners
The winners of the competition were:
1st Place: Andrew Maneval, MD, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center – “Quantifying the Effect of the Rib Injury Guideline (RIG) Score Implementation at a Level I Trauma Center on Safety and Resource Utilization for Elderly Patients with Rib Fractures”
2nd Place: Peter D. Nguyen, MD, University of California, Irvine – “Operative Strategies and Wound Complications for Morel-Lavallee Injuries Undergoing Excisional Debridement: A Pacific Coast Surgical Association Multicenter Study”
3rd Place: Sarah Remer, MD, American College of Surgeons – “Impact of Increased Time for Trial of Non-operative Management in SBO: Evidence from the ACS NSQIP EGS Targeted Database”
Rising Star Award – For undergraduate and medical students
Winner: Rhea Rahim, BA, Cedars Sinai Medical Center – “Core Needle Biopsy and Preoperative Risk Factors as Predictors of Upstaging Atypical Ductal Hyperplasia on Surgical Excision”
Commission on Cancer Award
1st Place: Noah Kim, MD, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center – “Enhancing Lymph Node Yield in Gastric Cancer Resection: Impact of Indocyanine Green and Back table Dissection on Lymph Node Yield“
2nd Place: Vikram Krishna MD, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center – “Neoadjuvant Chemo-immunotherapy for Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer in A Real-World U.S. Cohort: Trends, Outcomes, and Efficacy”
3rd Place: Nikhil Chakravarty, MPH, University of Southern California –“Evaluating Clinical Characteristics and Survival Outcomes in Mucinous Neoplasms Progressing to Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma”
Travel Stipend Winners
The leadership of the Southern California Chapter of ACS is committed to encouraging participation by young surgeons in the annual Chapter meeting. A stipend to help defray travel and registration costs to a future ACS meeting, either local or national, is offered to Young Surgeons every year. The successful applicants meeting all requirements receive a $2,000 stipend. The winners were announced at the Scientific Meeting Young Surgeons’ Breakfast.
The 2026 Young Surgeons Travel Stipend Winners were:
- Whitney Guerrero, MD, Private Practice
- Raja Narayan, MD, Loma Linda University
- Louise Yeung, MD, Kaiser Permanente, Los Angeles
Want to see pictures from these exciting activities?
Want to learn who was elected to the 2026 Board of Directors?