2019 Innovation Award Winner

The 2019 Surgical Infection Society Annual Meeting hosted the inaugural Clinical Research Innovation Award competition. The SIS innovation award is open to SIS members proposing novel, small, multicenter clinical trials or to support planning grants to support future, large clinical trials. Three finalists were selected to pitch their proposal to the SIS membership in a special session held during the Annual Meeting.

Dr. Haytham Kaafarani, Dr. Lillian Kao and Dr. Robert Sawyer each presented their proposals and fielded questions from the audience during a lively, interactive session. After considerable deliberation, judges from the Awards Committee and the SIS Foundation selected Dr. Lillian Kao as the winner of the 2019 SIS Innovation Award. Dr. Kao will receive $25,000 to support her project titled “Alliance for Surgical Site Infections Studies (ASSIST). The goal of Dr. Kao’s project is to develop an alliance of investigators to implement effective interventions to reduce surgical site infections while also measuring the impact of these interventions on patient satisfaction.

Please consider submitting an Innovation Award proposal for next year’s competition at the 2020 Annual Meeting in Denver. More information can be found on the Fellowships & Awards page of the SIS website (sisna.org).

Peter A. Burke, MD

Chair Awards Committee

Todd W. Costantini, MD

Co-Chair Awards Committee