Cardiac Surgery Research Group

John Del Gaizo, Ph.D., Lead AI Researcher, has years of industrial experience and extensive knowledge of the MUSC data infrastructure and IT capabilities, creating a unique opportunity to support and lead data science efforts in the center.

Brett Welch, MBA, MHA is the program manager for the Harvey and Marcia Schiller Surgical Innovation Center, managing more than 50 projects and facilitating the research from start to finish, including the QI process. Mr. Welch is a data scientist with experience in managing healthcare projects, operational management, and analytics.

Ruoyu (Michael) Zhang, MS is a Senior Research Associate at the Medical University of South Carolina. He earned his Master's degree in Healthcare Analytics from Carnegie Mellon University, where he developed an interest in applying AI and ML to the healthcare sector. At the Surgical Innovation Center, Ruoyu leads various projects focusing on natural language processing, large language models, and ETL pipeline design to improve health

Roshan Mathi, MS is an AI Researcher with experience in ML and AI. After receiving a master's degree and working at a startup healthcare company, he joined to work on novel approaches to predict healthcare outcomes and to create diagnostic tools for healthcare providers. Over the past year, he had an abstract accepted by the American Heart Association and presented work at national and regional conferences. He is currently working on anomaly detection with time series data and predicting surgical outcomes after organ transplants.

My research program focuses primarily on development, evaluation, and dissemination of culturally tailored, technology-enhanced behavioral health interventions and resources for vulnerable and clinically underserved populations in the context of trauma with a goal of increasing access to services and improving outcomes. This includes first responders, survivors of traumatic injuries and burns, and disaster survivors. I have developed and am currently directing the Burn Behavioral Health program housed within MUSC’s comprehensive Burn Center to support mental, physical, and social rehabilitation of burn patients to improve well-being and quality of life post-burn. Research opportunities include assisting with a randomized control trial of an mHealth application for burn patients and their families, quality improvement initiatives specific to evaluation and dissemination of stepped-care services for burn patients, optimizing inpatient and outpatient patient screening across multiple burn centers, and increasing patient satisfaction with care.

Ahmed Alameldin is an AI Researcher who is completing his Master's in Biomedical Data Science at Clemson University. He is a Fulbright Scholar from Egypt with a demonstrated history of working in health wellness who is skilled in R, Python, Machine Learning, and Deep Learning. His interest focuses on Natural Language Processing and its applications in medical text classification, AI Explainability and Fairness of some deep learning models, and Convolutional Neural Networks for medical image classification.

Will Zielke is a lab assistant at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, SC. He is a Sophomore at Emory University studying Computer Science and Finance. Before joining MUSC, Will garnered experience with natural language processing, LLMs, TensorFlow, and statistical analysis through his involvement in Emory's Comparative Political Advertising project, where he analyzed the sentiment of extensive datasets of political campaign advertisements. At MUSC's AI Innovation Center, Will is applying his expertise to critically evaluate the accuracy of various predictive models; he is statistically testing multiple models –predicting topics such as patient mortality or organ donation status– and comparing them to derive the most accurate one given a medical outcome. 

Akinwale Famotire received his bachelor's degree in Industrial Mathematics from the Federal University of Technology Akure (FUTA), Nigeria and is currently pursuing a Master's degree in Mathematics with a concentration in Bioinformatics at Georgia State University (GSU). His academic journey has involved analytical work, focusing on predictive analytics encompassing forecast and regression models. Current research endeavors revolve around a project that entails computational modeling of retinal pigment epithelium cells in a 3D environment, utilizing Compucell3D to understand the dynamics and structure of the cells and investigate conditions such as  Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD). Research interests are the application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in predictive analytics, particularly in the realm of medical imaging.

Atsuko Ueharra bio to be updated soon.

Mary Margaret Achurch is a medical student at the Medical University of South Carolina who will graduate in 2025. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Language and International Health at Clemson University where she gained research experience working with micro computed tomography scanners. Through her research with the cardiothoracic surgery department at MUSC, she has continued to work with various imaging modalities as well as perform data collection, conduct critical review of literature, and collaborate on manuscripts.

Krishna Bhandari, M.D. is a Russian-trained cardiothoracic surgeon from Nepal. After moving to the United States he spent some time in UCSD, Rady Children's Hospital, San Diego, CA doing research - published the manuscript as a co-author in Circulation: Cardiovascular Interventions. He completed a 2- year pediatric CT Surgery Fellowship followed by 1-year adult CT Surgery fellowship focused on Heart transplant, mechanical circulatory support (MCS). He is a faculty member at the Department of Surgery, division of Cardiothoracic Surgery with an academic position of Assistant Professor of Surgery.He is actively involved in clinical outcomes research projects with recent successful publication of two research projects in Annals of Thoracic Surgery and Journal of Surgical Research.

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Emma Bryant is a medical student at the Medical University of South Carolina College of Medicine in Charleston, SC. She received a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry from Clemson University, where she conducted research on the role of stem cells in addressing organ damage secondary to COVID-19. She also examined the application of stem cells in fluorescence imaging. Currently, she is gaining experience in data collection and analytics with the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery at MUSC.

Tristan Covell is a Medical Student at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, SC. He obtained a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry at Clemson University in Clemson, SC. As an undergraduate intern he studied the effects of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) at the Institute for Human & Machine Cognition in Pensacola, FL. In the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, he is currently investigating heart transplant outcomes in patients with Stage 3b Chronic Kidney Disease.

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Christa Haran is a visiting medical student from the Alabama College of Osteopathic Medicine. She obtained her Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Sciences and Master of Science in Medical Sciences from the University of South Florida. Her current research in the lab focuses on heart failure, transplants, and outcomes.

Mahalia Huba is currently pursuing her medical degree at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, SC. She graduated with a Bachelor of Science from Mary Baldwin University, where she majored in Biochemistry and Music. Mahalia has a expansive research background, spanning basic, translational, and clinical projects focused on understanding cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying cardiovascular disease and development. Within the Surgical Innovation Center, Mahalia plays an integral role in a range of team projects that focus on artificial intelligence (AI), predictive analytics, clinical outcomes, and risk modeling within cardiothoracic surgery.

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Max Kilcoyne is a 4th year integrated cardiothoracic surgery resident at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, SC. He obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in Excercise physiology at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Utah and completed medical school at the Philadelphia college of Osteopathic Medicine. His research interests include clinical outcomes research and machine learning. He is interested in a career in academic adult cardiac surgery.

Jennie Kwon, M.D., is an Integrated Cardiothoracic Surgery resident who recently completed a postdoctoral research fellowship with the Surgical Innovation Center. She performs clinical outcomes research in heart failure and cardiovascular surgery, in addition to contributing to device development using large and small animal models.

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Curry Sherard is a Medical Student at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, SC. She obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish and Biology at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, VA. As a member of the Cardiac Surgery Research Group, she has participated in data collection, abstract presentation, and manuscript writing. Her projects include myocardial viability in patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting, using artificial intelligence to predict postsurgical outcomes, implementing a quality scorecard for temporary mechanical circulatory support devices, differences in heart transplantation outcomes following the allocation policy change, heart transplantation in adults with congenital heart disease, outcomes of combined heart-kidney transplantation in older patients, and compiling a database of all patients undergoing left ventricular assist device implantation at the Medical University of South Carolina.

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Sophia Sitsis is a current 1st year Medical Student at MUSC. She obtained her Bachelor of Arts in Microbiology with a concentration in biomedicine at Clemson University. Sophia is currently working on several projects, including a review of outcomes of DCD heart transplants, using artificial intelligence to automate the collection of bypass data, and helping to create a central database for cardiogenic shock patients.

Zach Sollie is a third-year resident in cardiothoracic surgery at the Medical University of South Carolina. He is originally from Auburn, AL and received his bachelor's degree in Exercise Science at Auburn University at Montgomery. He then went on to complete medical school at the University of Alabama School of Medicine where he was inducted into the Alpha Omega Alpha honor society and received the Dean's award for clinical excellence. Since beginning his residency, he has been actively involved with multiple surgical outcomes and artificial intelligence research projects in heart transplant and adult cardiac surgery. 

Benjamin Usry is a Medical Student at MUSC. He obtained a Bachelor of Science in Biology and English at Clemson University. As a member of the Cardiac Surgery Research Group, he has participated in data collection, abstract presentation, and manuscript writing. His projects include myocardial viability in patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting, using artificial intelligence to predict postsurgical outcomes, medical student education of artificial intelligence, heart failure outcomes among septuagenarians, and organ utilization after circulatory death. He is interested in a career in academic surgery.

Andrew Vogel is a third year visiting medical student from the Alabama College of Osteopathic Medicine. He obtained his Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Sciences from Texas A&M University and his Master of Science in Physiology and Biophysics from Georgetown University. His current research in the lab focuses on cardiothoracic surgery education.

Julia Yerger is a Medical Student at MUSC. She received a Bachelor of Science in Neuroscience at Washington and Lee University. She is currently working on a comprehensive review of animal models in partial heart transplantation, intra and postoperative measurements of piglets undergoing partial heart transplantation, evaluating effects of body mass index on receiving left ventricular assist devices versus heart transplants, and creating an IRB to study lateral approach to VAD implementation.She is also working on a comparative analysis of surgeon contoured vs computer generated rods for pediatric scoliosis repair as well as collecting data for orthopedic postoperative measurements in foot and ankle surgery at MUSC. 

July 28, 2023

Published in Journal of Transplantation:

“Donor Utilization in Heart Transplantation with Donation after Circulatory Death in the United States”

October 26, 2023

Won Best Presentation in the Health Services Category at MUSC Department of Surgery Research Recognition Day 2023

“Waitlist and Transplant Outcomes in Organ Donation After Circulatory Death: Trends in the United States” 

December 12, 2023

Published in Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation 

“Outcomes of Combined Heart-Kidney Transplantation in Older Recipients”

July 19, 2023

Published in Annals of Thoracic Surgery

“Risk Factors for Mortality Following Heart Transplantation in Obese Patients Bridged with an LVAD”

February 5, 2024

Published in Journal of Surgical Research

“Heart Transplantation for Adults with Congenital Heart Disease Can Be Performed at Adult or Pediatric Hospitals with Comparable Outcomes”

March 31, 2023

Published in Journal of Cardiac Surgery

January 29, 2024

Won ‘Best Poster Award’ at the STS 2024 Annual Meeting

“Outcomes of Status 2 Listing for Heart Transplantation by Qualifying Metric