Second-year medical student Carissa Mangus spoke on campus last week about her experiences as the first participant in the Howard R. and Marilyn B. McCollister Memorial Fund Rural Surgery Research Program through the UNMC Department of Surgery.
At a reception on Oct. 20, guests heard Mangus speak about her 10 weeks in Columbus, Neb., gaining clinical and research experience.
The fund was created by Howard M. McCollister, M.D., and his family following the death of his mother, Marilyn. His father’s name — Howard R. McCollister — was added to the fund following his death.
The family worked with David W. Mercer, M.D., chair of the UNMC Department of Surgery to explore ways to begin using the fund. Dr. Mercer and UNMC colleagues suggested the creation of a Rural Surgery Research Program as part of the department’s Summer Student Research Program of Excellence. The McCollister program specifically incorporates a rural connection to surgical research.
Mangus, an Albion, Neb., native, completed a full summer externship in collaboration with Ron Ernst, M.D., attending surgeon at Columbus Community Hospital, and Jason Johanning, M.D., professor of vascular surgery at UNMC.
Mangus was able to actively assess more than 200 surgical patients and 100 admitted inpatients for frailty using a locally developed tool called the Risk Analysis Index. Mangus collected all the data, which is being evaluated by a statistician, while participating as a fully functioning member of the surgical team.
“Our goal will be to compare the Columbus population to the other surgical populations both locally and nationally,” Dr. Johanning said. “In addition, we have been working with Dr. Ernst and Nicole Blaser to use the frailty assessment data in combination with local Columbus outcomes data to demonstrate proof of concept for an easily implemented and sustainable quality improvement system at rural hospitals.”
“Carissa and Dr. Johanning really set the bar high,” said Dr. Mercer at the reception.
The research conducted by Mangus this summer introduces a low- to no-cost tool that can easily be adopted by small institutions.
“I am very grateful for my opportunity to conduct research in Columbus under the McCollister Fund,” Mangus said. “Clinical research has proven to be a great learning experience for me, and I am excited to continue working on it with everyone.”
“My family and I are very proud to have our parents’ names associated with this valuable educational program from a department that I will always remember with gratitude and pride for the education and training that I received,” said Dr. Howard M. McCollister, a surgeon based in Crosby, Minn., who specializes in bariatric and minimally invasive surgery.