Category: News

Zara Cooper, MD, MSc, FACS, Kessler Director for the Center for Surgery and Public Health, was awarded a Pilot & Exploratory Project Support Grant from the National Palliative Care Research Center (NPCRC) for her project entitled “The Trauma Dyad: Tending to Caregivers of Injured Frail Elders.”

This award provides funding for investigators performing pilot/exploratory studies whose purpose is to test interventions, develop research methodologies or explore novel areas of research that are directly related to the NPCRC’s mission and areas of interest.

Cooper’s study will survey informal caregivers of older patients who have experienced traumatic injury to examine the social, emotional and physical effects of providing informal care. She and her colleagues will conduct surveys and interviews at two timepoints after patient discharge to collect data on modifiable factors that can reduce burden in this population.

The mission of the NPCRC is to strengthen the evidence-based foundation needed for health policy and clinical practice in palliative care medicine by growing and supporting the community of palliative care research scientists and stimulating expanded research and innovation.

Zara Cooper, MD, MSc, FACS
Kessler Director, Center for Surgery and Public Health, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Associate Professor of Surgery, Harvard Medical School

An acute care surgeon, trauma surgeon and surgical intensivist, Cooper focuses her broader research on identifying ways to improve palliative and geriatric care for older, seriously ill surgical patients. A national leader in surgical palliative care and geriatric trauma, she has authored more than 100 peer-reviewed manuscripts, chapters, and abstracts and lectures about surgical care in complex older patients.

Please join us in welcoming M. Blair Marshall, MD, FACS, as a new faculty member in the Department of Surgery.

M. Blair Marshall, MD, FACS
Associate Surgeon, Division of Thoracic Surgery, Brigham and Women’s Hospital

Dr. Marshall is a graduate of Brown University and received her medical degree from Georgetown Medical School, where she also completed a residency in General Surgery. Dr. Marshall completed both a Cardiothoracic Surgery fellowship and General Thoracic fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania. She is board certified by the American Board of Surgery and the American Board of Thoracic Surgery.

Most recently, Dr. Marshall was chief of Thoracic Surgery at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital where she received the outstanding faculty teaching award on multiple occasions. She is currently the editor of Thoracic Surgery Clinics and the thoracic editor of Operative Techniques in Thoracic Surgery.

Her research and clinical interests include: minimally invasive and robotic techniques for complex thoracic procedures, simulation, surgical education, surgical videos and patient safety.

Please join us in welcoming Daniel E. Rinewalt, MD, as a new faculty member in the Department of Surgery.

Daniel E. Rinewalt, MD
Associate Surgeon, Division of Cardiac Surgery

Dr. Rinewalt is a graduate of Texas Tech University and received his medical degree from the University of Texas at Houston Medical School. He completed a residency in General Surgery at Rush University Medical Center/Cook County Hospital followed by a Cardiothoracic Surgery residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital where he also completed a fellowship in Advanced Cardiac Surgery. He is board certified by the American Board of Thoracic Surgery.

Most recently, Dr. Rinewalt was a clinical instructor in cardiothoracic transplantation and mechanical circulatory support at Stanford University.

His research and clinical interests include all aspects of adult cardiac surgery as well as heart and lung transplantation, ventricular assist device placement, extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) and surgical education.