
Each year, the American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma (ACS COT) holds the Resident Trauma Papers Competition. Residents from all surgical specialties and trauma fellows from all COT regions are eligible to compete.
The winners of the 43rd Annual Resident Trauma Papers Competition were announced during the virtual Clinical Congress 2020. First- and second-place winners in Basic Laboratory Science and Clinical Research were recognized at the COT Business Session/Awards Presentation on Saturday, October 3.
Basic Science
- 1st place—Julia R. Coleman, MD, MPH, Denver, CO, Region 8; “Whole blood thrombin generation is depressed in severely injured patients requiring massive transfusion”
- 2nd place—Amanda M. Chipman, MD, Baltimore, MD, Region 3, “Fibrinogen Inhibits miRNA-19b, a Novel Mechanism for Repair of Hemorrhagic Shock-Induced Endothelial Cell Dysfunction”

Clinical Research
- 1st place— Alexandra Dixon, MD, MPH, Portland, OR, Region 10, “TEG does not detect fibrinolytic inhibition following treatment with TXA”
- 2nd place—Jetan H. Badhiwala, MD, Toronto, ON, Region 12, “Early versus Late Surgical Decompression for Acute Spinal Cord Injury: A Pooled Analysis of 1,548 Patients”
Abstracts on basic or clinical research are eligible for consideration. State-level winners compete at the regional level, and regional winners advance to the national competition at the ACS COT Annual Meeting. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Annual Meeting and competition, which usually take place in March, were rescheduled during the Clinical Congress. The award announcements were made during the COT Virtual Trauma Week, held September 28–October 3. Entries may have been previously presented but not published in a peer-reviewed journal before the national event.
The following are the 2020 regional winners. The institutions and locations listed below were current at the time of paper/abstract submission.
- Region 1—Michelle E. Wakeley, MD, Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, RI, “Adaptive Immune Cell Co-Expression of HVEM and BTLA in Immunosuppression of Critical Illness”
- Region 2—Michele Fiorentino, MD, Rutgers-New Jersey Medical School, New York, NY, “The Elderly Patient One Year after Trauma: Palliative Performance Scale Predicts Functional Outcomes”
- Region 3—Amanda M. Chipman, MD, RA Cowley Shock Trauma Center, University of Maryland, Baltimore, MD, “Fibrinogen Inhibits miRNA-19b, a Novel Mechanism for Repair of Hemorrhagic Shock-Induced Endothelial Cell Dysfunction”
- Region 4—Richard R. Rieske, MD, University of South Alabama, Mobile, AL, “Standard Preparation Methods Lead to Previously Unrecognized and Potentially Damaging Cellular Contamination of Plasma Products”
- Region 5—Ben Biesterveld, MD, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, “Histone Deacetylase 6 Inhibition Improves Survival in a Swine Model of Hemorrhage, Polytrauma, and Bacteremia”
- Region 6—Adil Justin Malek, MD, Baylor Scott & White Health, Temple, TX, “Doxycycline Improves Traumatic Brain Injury Outcomes in Murine Model”
- Region 7—Jared Sheppard, MD, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, “Between Memphis and Denver: Midwest Predictors of Blunt Cerebrovascular Injury”
- Region 8—Julia R. Coleman, MD, MPH, University of Colorado-Denver, Aurora, CO, “Prothrombin Time/International Normalized Ratio and Thromboelastography Discordances in Trauma Patients: An Examination of Correlation with Factor Levels and Thrombin Generation”
- Region 9—Navpreet K. Dhillon, MD, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA, “How Repetitive Traumatic Injury Alters Long-Term Brain Function”
- Region 10—Alexandra Dixon, MD, MPH, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, OR, “TEG Does Not Detect Fibrinolytic Inhibition following Treatment with TXA”
- Region 11—Karan D’Souza, MD, M.Mgmt., BSc, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, “Evaluating Management and Outcomes of Blunt Cerebrovascular Injuries at a Canadian Level I Trauma Center: Are We Meeting the Grade?”
- Region 12—Jetan H. Badhiwala, MD, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada, “Early versus Late Surgical Decompression for Acute Spinal Cord Injury: A Pooled Analysis of 1,548 Patients”
- Region 13—Dominic Forte, MD, Madigan Army Medical Center, Tacoma, WA, “Less Is More: Comparison of Partial versus Full REBOA in a Porcine Hemorrhagic Shock Model”
- Region 14—Juan José Meléndez, MD, Universidad del Valle, Condominio PIO XII, Cali, Colombia, “Don’t Rush to Thoracotomy When Diagnosing a Hemopericardium in Hemodynamically Stable Patients with Penetrating Injuries to the Cardiac Box”
- Region 15—Michel Teuben, MD, University Hospital Zurich, Zurich Switzerland, “Multiple Simultaneous Casualty Admissions: Do They Affect Treatment in the Receiving Trauma Center?”
- Region 16—Sumawadee Boonyasurak, MD, Siriraj Hospital, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand, “Benefits of Noninvasive Continuous Positive Airway Pressure Ventilation (NIV-CPAP) for Severe Blunt Chest Injuries: A Randomized Controlled Study”
- Region 17—Arwa El Rifai, MD, American University of Beirut Medical Center, Beirut, Lebanon, “Small Bowel Obstruction Due to a Gossypiboma: The Dreaded Sequel of a Trauma Laparotomy”