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Vanita Ahuja, MD, MPH, MBA

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Associate Professor of Surgery

Titles

Chief General Surgery, VA Surgery; Surgery Quality Liaison-Residency, Yale Surgery; Chair Surgery Award Committee, Yale Surgery; Co-Director Geriatric Surgery Committee, VA Surgery; Site Director-Residency, VA Surgery; Surgery Quality Liaison, Surgery; Associate Co-Director, GME; VISN 1 General Surgery Lead, Regional VA (Northeast)

Contact Info

Yale School of Medicine

100 Cedar St

New Haven, CT 06510

United States

About

Titles

Associate Professor of Surgery

Chief General Surgery, VA Surgery; Surgery Quality Liaison-Residency, Yale Surgery; Chair Surgery Award Committee, Yale Surgery; Co-Director Geriatric Surgery Committee, VA Surgery; Site Director-Residency, VA Surgery; Surgery Quality Liaison, Surgery; Associate Co-Director, GME; VISN 1 General Surgery Lead, Regional VA (Northeast)

Biography

I was appointed the Section Chief of General Surgery, within the Department of Surgery at the Connecticut VA Healthcare System (VACT) and Surgery Quality Liaison in Department of Surgery at Yale School of Medicine, in 2019. As section lead, I oversee all the operations of the section from clinical work, surgical volume, innovation, research, outcomes, and QA/QI. I lead numerous collaborative research and multidisciplinary efforts to provide comprehensive, quality care to Veterans. As a result of these successes, I was recently appointed the Veterans Integrated Services Network (VISN)- 1 Northeastern region lead for general surgery to help ensure that the care is standardized. As the site residency program director for the Department of Surgery at VA, I oversee the training of 8 residents spread over their 7-year training period. I am an active member on the Clinical Competency Committee, the Program Evaluation Committee, the medical student surgery committees, and oversee the Education Committee. I am the chair of Surgical Site Infection committee for the Department and co-chair of Geriatric Surgery Program. Both programs are to optimize care of the Veterans with improvement in quality of care. I am also the medical student Clerkship Director, directly responsible for student education, evaluation, training, and wellbeing while they rotate through our clinical service. Starting in 2022, I am Yale GME Associate Co-Director of Quality & Safety where my primary responsibility is to help lead GME distinction pathway in patient safety, quality improvement and healthcare equity. I am the chair of Yale Surgery Citizenship Award committee to recognize and celebrate faculty, trainees and staff who lead by example. At Yale, I lead multiple quality initiatives that earned local and national recognition. I routinely assist with section chief searches (e.g., Section Chief, Critical Care) and was recently appointed as 2023 Associates of the Cushing/Whitney Medical Library.

Appointments

  • Surgery

    Associate Professor on Term
    Primary

Other Departments & Organizations

Education & Training

Categorical Resident
University of Wisconsin (2020)
MBA
Johns Hopkins Carey School of Business (2016)
Postdoctoral fellowship
John Wayne Cancer Institute (2009)
MPH
Johns Hopkins-Bloomberg School of Public Health (2008)
Categorical Resident
Johns Hopkins (2007)
Preliminary Resident
Johns Hopkins Hospital (2004)
Research Fellowship
Sinai Hospital (2003)
MD
Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences
BS
University of Maryland, Electrical Engineering

Board Certifications

  • General Surgery

    Certification Organization
    AB of Surgery
    Original Certification Date
    2008

Research

Overview

My research activities can be divided into two categories: health equity and patient outcomes.

We utilized administrative nation-wide databases to research outcomes in general surgery like colectomy with the use of robotic and minimal invasive approach on technological advancement. Since we added robot surgery as a new service, we are augmenting our expertise by examining approaches to surgery and outcomes. Our work has led to multiple questions in healthcare equity arena and how advanced technology is being utilized by race and socioeconomic factors. Our work has been presented internationally and accepted for publication.

Nearly all my work are collaborative efforts with various faculty. One such collaboration was the study of surgical patients’ patient decision making, especially the super-elderly, to understand surrogate decision making and palliative care in critically ill surgical patients. This was especially acute during the pandemic. This work was support by departmental grant and resulted in multiple publications in peer-reviewed surgery journals and presentations at national conferences.

Within our department, I oversee and mentor the VACT National Clinical Scholar’s Program fellow (NCSP). With my guidance, the previous fellow focused on geriatric surgery and implementing the American College of Surgeon QI program at Yale an VA. A teaching platform was developed with prompts in respective electronic medical record to assist with the quality improvement projects. Additionally at Yale the NCSP assisted with implementation and developing education material for Yale faculty and trainees for several Surgery Signature Pathways. The major project was streamlining the management and provide guidance to providers in the pre and post usage of anticoagulation medications. This was patient-centered QI project with input from patient focused group to assist with patient information hand-out development.

I co-lead Yale Summer Undergraduate Research group for the last 3 years. The group was initiated during the pandemic and offered virtually to help the undergraduates’ students with understanding principles of statistical research, conducting and synthesizing literature searches, and development of research ideas. The inaugural group has successfully published a systematic review in melanoma in a surgery journal.

Medical Subject Headings (MeSH)

Health Care

Research at a Glance

Yale Co-Authors

Frequent collaborators of Vanita Ahuja's published research.

Publications

Academic Achievements and Community Involvement

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Get In Touch

Contacts

Mailing Address

Yale School of Medicine

100 Cedar St

New Haven, CT 06510

United States