Our research focuses on optimizing outcomes of a number of common pediatric surgical diseases, studying innovations, enhanced recovery after surgery, patient-reported outcomes, and patient-centered care.

Children’s Journey is a communication application that facilitates informed and shared decision-making between patients, families, and surgical teams. The initial focus will be improving experience and outcomes for children undergoing surgery, but will be expanded to any area of healthcare.

This little-explored area in surgery comprises a broad spectrum of projects aiming to improve and personalize the communication between children, their families, and their surgical care providers.

At the heart of patient-centered care are patient-reported outcomes measures (PROMs) and patient-reported experience measures (PREMs), allowing the children’s and their families’ voices to be heard in pediatric surgery. Several projects are ongoing in this area.

Health sciences education is complex and unique, requiring expertise across multiple domains. Students are required to learn not only vast amounts of knowledge and technical procedures but also to acquire key communication and other non-technical skills, including leadership, situational awareness, decision-making, and teamwork.

Our lab focuses on the various communication processes in surgical care, both between children, families/caregivers and their providers, and within interprofessional care teams.