https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3334-9877
Overview
Pediatric plastic and craniofacial surgeon, taking care of children with cleft lip/palate and other facial differences.
Dedicated to the improvement of multidisciplinary team-based care, especially by way of standardized, prospective outcomes measurement ("If you don't measure it, you can't improve it.")
Passionate about causal inference for real-world data (RWD) in observational studies.
Dedicated to the improvement of multidisciplinary team-based care, especially by way of standardized, prospective outcomes measurement ("If you don't measure it, you can't improve it.")
Passionate about causal inference for real-world data (RWD) in observational studies.
Current Duke Appointments & Affiliations
Associate Professor of Surgery
·
2022 - Present
Surgery, Plastic, Maxillofacial, and Oral Surgery,
Surgery
Associate Professor in Population Health Sciences
·
2022 - Present
Population Health Sciences,
Basic Science Departments
Affiliate Faculty Member, Duke-Margolis Institute for Health Policy
·
2024 - Present
Duke-Margolis Institute for Health Policy,
University Institutes and Centers
Recent Scholarly Works
Linguistic Fidelity and Classification Performance of Large Language Models for Generating Synthetic Operative Notes: Evaluation Study.
Journal article JMIR Form Res · July 3, 2026 BACKGROUND: Machine learning models for surgical applications require large, diverse datasets; however, data scarcity remains a critical limitation due to privacy regulations, institutional variability, and the rarity of many surgical procedures. Large lan ... Full text Link to item CiteA 5-Step Simplification of the Fisher Anatomical Subunit Cleft Lip Repair.
Journal article Plast Reconstr Surg · June 1, 2026 Unilateral cleft lip repair methods have evolved from straight-line repairs to geometric procedures, rotation advancement, and contemporary hybrid techniques. The Fisher anatomical subunit repair is a versatile, effective, and highly reproducible technique ... Full text Link to item CiteNatural Language Processing for Automated Classification of Cleft and Craniofacial Procedures From Operative Notes: Model Development and Feasibility Study.
Journal article JMIR Med Inform · May 11, 2026 BACKGROUND: The accurate classification of operative notes is essential for surgical outcomes research; however, CPT code classification is notoriously nonspecific for many procedures. In such situations, the operative note (or "dictation") must be reviewe ... Full text Link to item CiteRecent Grants
Optimizing Pain Management in Infants and Young Children Undergoing Cleft Palate Repair
ResearchCo Investigator · Awarded by Gerber Foundation · 2026 - 2028Computational modeling of the mature unilateral cleft lip nasal deformity for objective assessment of patient nasal function and treatment outcomes
ResearchCo Investigator · Awarded by National Institutes of Health · 2019 - 2025Directing Stem Cells to the Adipocyte Lineage in Infantile Hemangiomas
ResearchCollaborator · Awarded by National Institutes of Health · 2022 - 2024View All Grants
Education
University of Texas Medical School, Houston ·
2003
M.D.