Residents & Fellows

As part of the ACHQC’s mission to maximize the quality and value of health care for patients, we want to encourage resident and fellow involvement in the ACHQC!  

The ACHQC Resident & Fellow Committee is committed to the following:

• Increasing resident and fellow attendance at our annual meetings
• Providing educational programing on Abdominal Core Health
• Ensuring accessibility to our data for research
• Demonstrating the benefits of participation in the ACHQC

Our goal is for residents and fellows to continue participating in the ACHQC after completion of their training.

Become Involved in the ACHQC

The ACHQC is always looking for ways to better serve our community.  If you would like to receive correspondence from the ACHQC, please join our mailing list by clicking on the link below. 

Click Here to Join ACHQC Mailing List

---

QC Uncut Video Series

The QC Uncut Video Series will involve episodes consisting of 30 minutes of unedited video. A hernia related case will be demonstrated. The video will be narrated by the operating surgeon with a resident/fellow alongside asking questions.  The focus should be on technical aspects as well as identifying anatomic landmarks, improving exposure and getting out of trouble. 

EpISODE 2: Open Preperitoneal Inguinal Hernia Repair

This video demonstrates an open preperitoneal inguinal repair. We discuss patient selection criteria for this procedure. In addition, we go over some of the technical aspects of this repair by supplementing the video with illustrations from Dr. Reinhorn's recent publication looking at patient-reported outcomes after open preperitoneal inguinal hernia repair compared to anterior Lichtenstein repair (PMID: 37553502).

 

Episode 1: Open Mesh Excision & TAR for a Large Incisional Ventral Hernia

This video demonstrates an open repair of a large incisional ventral hernia. We start with excision of old hernia mesh followed by posterior component separation with transversus abdominus release and placement of retromuscular synthetic mesh. Tips and tricks regarding exposure, extent of dissection and type of mesh are discussed. 

---

ACHQC Resident & Fellow Research Grant

The Abdominal Core Health Quality Collaborative will be awarding one grant of $2,500 to a qualified and approved applicant for research related to ventral and inguinal hernias using the ACHQC database. All residents, fellows, and medical students with a surgeon mentor in the ACHQC that is in ‘Good Standing’ are welcome to apply.

ACHQC will begin accepting applications for the 2027 ACHQC Resident & Fellow Research Grant in Fall 2027. 

 

2026 Grant Recipient

Austin Coale, MD

ACHQC is pleased to announce that the recipient of the 2026 ACHQC Resident & Fellow Research Grant is Austin Coale, MD.  Dr. Coale is a PGY-1 resident at the University of Florida, and his ACHQC surgeon mentor is Dr. Mazen Al-Mansour.  Dr. Coale will present the findings of his study “Onlay versus retrorectus mesh position in ventral hernia repair with concomitant panniculectomy” at the 2027 ACHQC Quality Improvement Summit in Chicago

 

PAST GRANT RECIPIENTS

2025

Nancy Ly, MD

"Evaluating the Effects of Surgical Site Infections on Patients with Different Socioeconomic Statuses: A Mixed Method Study"

2024

Avika Sharma, BS, BA

"Comparison of pre- and postoperative patient reported quality of life outcomes in symptomatic and asymptomatic patients undergoing elective inguinal hernia repair"

2023

Sara Maskal, MD
"A Modern Comparison of Suture Repair with Mesh Repair for Incisional Hernia"

2022

Delaney Ding, BS
"Assessing the Impact of Individual Risk Factors in Predicting Surgical Outcomes of Ventral Hernia Repair: An Analysis Using the ACHQC Database"

2021
Colin DeLong, MD
"Does Geographic Location of Hernia Patients Influence Access, Disparities, and Patient-Provider Communicationin Current Hernia Care? An Abdominal Core Health Quality Collaborative (ACHQC) Analysis"

2020
Ryan Lamm, MD
"Are short-and long-term outcomes in cancer-related ventral incisional hernia repair worse than in the general population? An Abdominal Core Health Quality Collaborative (ACHQC) database study"

2018
Aldo Fafaj, MD
"Registry-based, Randomized Controlled Trial Comparing Intra-operative Foley Catheter versus No Catheter for Minimally Invasive Inguinal Hernia Repair"

Ibnalwalid Saad, MD
"Perioperative Analgesia with Transversus Abdominis Plane (TAP) Block versus Epidural Analgesia: Analysis from the Americas Hernia Society Quality Collaborative"

2017
Angela Kao, MD
"Comparison of Outcomes After Parital (PME) versus Complete Mesh Excision (CME)"

Luciano Tastaldi, MD
"AHSQC-embedded Randomized Controlled Trial - Telescopic Dissection vs. Balloon Dissection for Laparoscopic TEP Inguinal Hernia Repair"

2016
Thomas Gavigan, MD, MSc
"Prospective Cohort Study of Patients Undergoing Parastomal Hernia Repair Using the Americas Hernia Society Quality Collaborative"

Ivy Haskins, MD
"Development and Validation of a Ventral Hernia Decision Support Tool Using the AHSQC"

---

Fellowship Programs List

---

QC Core Insights

QC Core Insights features talks on Hot Topics in Abdominal Core Surgery and review of recent publications, ACHQC quality initiatives and data analyses. Each QC Core Insights session will incorporate a 10-15 minute presentation by the author of the work followed by 2 invited discussants offering critical point/counter-point review and open membership discussion. We encourage all residents and fellows to attend. QC Core Insights is not limited to just ACHQC participants.

Click Here  for more information

---

Research

With local IRB approval, it is easy to use data collected by the QC to answer the questions pertinent to your patients and your practice.  By partnering with a surgeon member of the QC in good standing, you can immediately access de-identified data for your surgeon or your institution.  This can be a great way to track changes made during QI projects or to better understand the needs of your community.  Have a question that would benefit from querying the nation-wide database?  Submit a data request with your specific question and our data coordination center (including our own statisticians) will help you analyze the QC data and answer your question.  

Click Here  to learn more about Data Requests through the ACHQC