Carlos A. Pellegrini, M.D.
Brian K. Ross, Ph.D. M.D.
Richard Satava, M.D., F.A.C.S
Thomas J. Benedetti, M.D., MHA
Mika N. Sinanan, M.D., Ph.D.
Sara Kim, Ph.D.

Staff

Faculty

Staff

Directors

Carlos A. Pellegrini, M.D.
Chairman

Carlos A. Pellegrini, M.D. is professor of surgery, chair of the Department of Surgery, and holder of the Henry N. Harkins Endowed Chair in Surgery at the University of Washington.

He received his M.D. in 1971 from the University of Rosario Medical School in Argentina. After training in general surgery in Argentina, he completed a second residency at the University of Chicago.

In 1979 he was appointed to the faculty of the University of California, San Francisco, where he developed and directed the Center for GI Motility. As an active gastrointestinal surgeon at UCSF, he was recognized on several occasions by residents and students for his teaching.

In 1993 he became chair of the Department of Surgery at the University of Washington in Seattle. A world leader in minimally invasive gastrointestinal surgery, Dr. Pellegrini is a pioneer in the development of videoendoscopy for the surgical treatment of gastroesophageal reflux disease and esophageal motility disorders, particularly achalasia.

At the University of Washington he developed two major clinical research programs: the Center for Videoendoscopic Surgery and the Swallowing Center. He was a leader in developing the UW Institute for Simulation and Interprofessional Studies (ISIS) and is board chair of the institute.

Dr. Pellegrini has been a leader in medical education and was a major contributor to the fundamental reform of residency work hours. In 1996, in recognition of his role in the strengthening of all clinical, teaching, and research programs of the Department of Surgery, he became the first holder of the Henry N. Harkins Endowed Chair in Surgery, named for the first chairman of the UW Department of Surgery.

Currently, he is a Regent of the American College of Surgeons, a Director of the American Board of Surgery, President of the Society of Surgical Chairs, Chair of the Digestive Disease Week Council and he is a past-president of the American Surgical Association.  He has recently been named as Vice-President of the World Organization for Specialized Studies on Diseases of the Esophagus (OESO) and President of the OESO 9th World Congress which will be held in 2008.

Dr. Pellegrini serves on several editorial boards and publishes regularly in the field of minimally invasive surgery for upper gastrointestinal diseases, esophageal cancer, and related areas, as well as the field of training and new technologies for preparing surgeons in this area. His bibliography lists more than 300 articles, chapters, editorials, and books, as well as 11 surgical videos and movies.

Brian K. Ross, Ph.D., M.D.,
Executive Director

Brian K. Ross, M.D., Ph.D., UW Medicine professor of anesthesiology, received his Ph.D. in physiology/pharmacology from the University of North Dakota in 1975. He completed postdoctoral research in respiratory diseases at the University of Washington in 1979, where he also received his M.D. in 1983. In 1984, he completed an internship in UW School of Medicine. In 1986, Dr. Ross completed a fellowship in Obstetrical Anesthesia from the University of California at San Francisco. In 1987, he completed a residency in anesthesiology, also at the University of Washington.

Dr. Ross has been on the UW School of Medicine faculty since 1987. In 2003, he was appointed full professor status. Dr Ross has been involved in medical simulation at the UW since 1996, when he developed the initial curriculum for the Department of Anesthesiology. Since then, he has developed 20 courses for medical students, residents, and nurses.To promote careers in health care, he performs outreach to local high schools, conducting full-scale virtual operating room scenarios using the human patient simulator. Dr. Ross is the energy behind the advancement of medical simulation within the Department of Anesthesiology, reaching throughout the UW schools of medicine, nursing, and dentistry.He identified equipment and designed the labs that became the cornerstone of the Institute for Simulation and Interprofessional Studies (ISIS). Based on his vision and expertise in medical simulation, Dr. Ross was appointed by the dean of the School of Medicine to serve as the first executive director of ISIS in November 2005. He will take ISIS into its next phase, as it expands into its new offices and labs in the UW Medical Center Surgery Pavilion, and as ISIS establishes itself as the medical simulation resource for the UW, community, industry, and the five-state WWAMI region (Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, and Idaho).

Richard Satava, M.D., F.A.C.S.,
Senior Executive Advisor

Richard Satava, M.D., F.A.C.S., is professor of surgery at the University of Washington and senior executive advisor for ISIS. In addition, Dr. Satava serves as the director of research at the Telemedicine and Advanced Technologies Research Center (TATRC). Prior to that, he was the program manager of advanced biomedical technology at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and special assistant in advanced surgical technologies at the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command in Ft. Detrick, Maryland.

Previous positions include professor of surgery at Yale University and a military appointment as professor of surgery (USUHS) in the Army Medical Corps assigned to general surgery at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. His undergraduate training was at Johns Hopkins University, medical school at Hahnemann University of Philadelphia, internship at the Cleveland Clinic, surgical residency at the Mayo Clinic, and a fellowship with a master of surgical research at the Mayo Clinic.

Dr. Satava has served on the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Committee on Health, Food and Safety. He is currently a member of the Emerging Technologies and Resident Education Committee and the Informatics Committee of the American College of Surgeons, is past president of the Society of American Gastrointestinal Endoscopic Surgeons, past president of the Society of Laparoendoscopic Surgeons, and is on the Board of Governors of the National Board of Medical Examiners, as well as on a number of surgical societies.

He is on the editorial board of numerous surgical and scientific journals, and active in numerous surgical and engineering societies. He has been continuously active in surgical education and surgical research, with more than 200 publications and book chapters in diverse areas of advanced surgical technology, including Surgery in the Space Environment, Video and 3-D Imaging, Telepresence Surgery, Virtual Reality Surgical Simulation, and Objective Assessment of Surgical Competence and Training.

During his 23 years of military surgery he has been an active flight surgeon, an Army astronaut candidate, MASH surgeon for the Grenada invasion, and a hospital commander during Desert Storm, all the while continuing clinical surgical practice. While striving to practice the complete discipline of surgery, he is aggressively pursuing the leading edge of advanced technologies to formulate the architecture for the next generation of medicine.

Thomas J. Benedetti, MD, MHA
Associate Director, ISIS Experts Group

Thomas J. Benedetti,MD, MHA, is professor and Vice Chairman of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Washington.

He received his M.D. in 1973 from the University of Washington in Seattle and completed his obstetrics and gynecology residency and maternal fetal medicine fellowship at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. Dr. Benedetti joined the faculty at the University of Washington in 1979, serving as Director of the Maternal Fetal Medicine Division, Department of Ob-Gyn from 1983-2002. He received his masters in Health Administration from the University of Washington in 2000.

Dr. Benedetti has been recognized throughout his academic career by residents and peers for his teaching as well as excellence in research at both the University of Southern California and the University of Washington.

Dr. Benedetti's main clinical research interest has been in birth trauma. He spent a recent sabbatical in Bristol England studying at the Bristol Simulation Center and Southmead Hospital. He has adapted a prototype Birthing Trainer developed in Bristol by Limbs and Things Corporation for simulations at the University of Washington for shoulder dystocia and other obstetric emergencies. Dr Benedetti serves on the Editorial Board of the Society for Simulation in Healthcare, presents at Simulation Conferences, and is a guest faculty at other simulation centers, including the University of California, Davis. As a result of his interest and expertise in shoulder dystocia simulation, he was appointed Associate Director and Head of Experts Group, Institute for Simulation and Interprofessional Studies, in January 2006.

Mika N. Sinanan, M.D., Ph.D.,
Associate Director R&D Medicine

Mika N. Sinanan, M.D., Ph.D., professor of surgery at the University of Washington School of Medicine, received his M.D. from Johns Hopkins University in 1980. He completed his residency at the University of Washington in 1988 and then joined the faculty of the UW Department of Surgery. Dr. Sinanan received his Ph.D. in gastrointestinal physiology in 1991 from the University of British Columbia. In addition to his School of Medicine appointment, Dr. Sinanan is an adjunct associate professor in the UW Department of Electrical Engineering.

Widely published and recognized as a leader in minimally invasive gastrointestinal surgery, Dr. Sinanan became co-director the Center for Videoendoscopic Surgery at the UW School of Medicine in 1993.

Dr. Sinanan is committed to the advancement of robotic surgery and was the Co-PI of a grant from the Department of Defense, “Studying Mini Robot Design for Military Telesurgery in the Battlefield.”

Dr. Sinanan’s other positions include medical director of the Surgical Specialties Center and chief of medical staff and associate administrator of quality for UW Medical Center. As chair of the Surgery Pavilion Project Management Committee, Dr. Sinanan was instrumental in the design and planning of the new 160,000-square-foot wing of UW Medical Center, where the Institute for Simulation and Interprofessional Studies (ISIS) will have its labs and offices in early 2007.

Sara Kim, Ph.D.
Associate Director for Education and Curriculum

Sara Kim, Ph.D., associate professor of Medical Education and Biomedical Informatics as well as Family Medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine, received her Ph.D. in education in 1999 from University of Washington. Dr. Kim is also an adjunct professor in Pediatric Dentistry in the School of Dentistry and associate lecturer in the College of Education. She is currently the Associate Director of Education and Curriculum at the Institute for Simulation and Interprofessional Studies (ISIS).

With her training in educational technology, Dr. Kim has implemented and evaluated numerous Web-based distance education tools for training medical students. She has published her work in major journals in medical education such as Academic Medicine, Medical Education, and Teaching and Learning in Medicine.

Her primary roles in ISIS involve developing curricula materials for key procedures taught at ISIS, overseeing the process of peer-reviewing curricula content, developing Web-based cognitive training tools and mentoring junior faculty members with grant writing and publications.

Staff

Jim Goddard
Senior Computer Specialist

Farrah Leland (Batchelor), JD
ISIS Administrator

Patrick McAdams
Laboratory Technician

Sam Park
Laboratory Technician

Megan Sherman
Program Coordinator

ISIS Faculty

Core Faculty Members

Fialkow, Michael — OB/GYN
Landel, Grace — MedEx
Lin, Simon — Pediatric Dentistry
Lombaard, Stefan — Anesthesiology
Metzner, Julia — Anesthesiology
Souter, Karen — Anesthesiology
Varghese, Thomas — Surgery, Cardiothoracic
Vitin, Alexander — Anesthesiology
Wright, Andrew — General Surgery
Wu, Michael — Ophthalmology

Core Pending Faculty Members

Adedipe, Adeyinka — Emergency Medicine
Edwards, Thomas — Anesthesiology
Fligner, Corinne — Pathology
Taitsman, Lisa — Orthopedics

Adjunct Faculty Members

Amies, Anne-Marie — OB/GYN
Beard, Mark — Family Medicine
Dembo, Gregory — Anesthesiology
Hagman, Melissa (Moe) — Internal Medicine
Kent, Christopher — Anesthesiology
Payne, John — Surgery (University of Hawaii)
Peterson, Gene — Anesthesiology
Plitt, Ken — Anesthesiology
Reid, Jennifer — Emergency Medicine (Seattle Children’s)
Rozet, Irene — Anesthesiology
Sivarajan, Murali — Anesthesiology
Stanley, Robert — ENT
Strandjord, Tom — Pediatrics (CHRMC)
Vater, Youri — Anesthesiology
Wolff, Juvann — Nursing

Adjunct Pending Faculty Members

Benvenuto, Kris — Emergency Medicine
Friedrich, Jeff — Plastic/Hand Surgery
Masuda, David — Medical Education
O’Connell, Kathy — OB/GYN
Sayre, Cindy — Nursing

Research Faculty Members

Chen, Frederick — Family Medicine
Gallagher, Thomas — Internal Medicine
Jense, Ryan — Anesthesiology
Lendvay, Thomas — Pediatric Urology (Seattle Children’s)
Whipple, Mark — Otolaryngology
Zierler, Brenda — Nursing