Annual Program for Practising Surgeons
Update in General Surgery

David Chen, MD, is a Professor of Clinical Surgery at the David Geffen School Medicine at UCLA, Chief of General Surgery at UCLA Santa Monica Hospital and is the Director of the Lichtenstein Amid Hernia Institute. He was directly trained by Dr. Amid in modern Lichtenstein technique, complex hernia management and repair, and operative remediation of hernia pain. He is an international expert in open, laparoscopic, and robotic techniques for complex hernia repair, abdominal wall reconstruction, and foregut and hiatal hernia surgery, with an emphasis on post-operative chronic pain. He is recognized as one of the preeminent leaders in the field through his clinical experience, research, lectures, and publications on hernia repair and chronic pain after hernia surgery with over 500 lectures and live surgeries, 71 peer reviewed publications and 52 book chapters. He is a past president of the American Hernia Society, President of Hernia Repair for the Underserved, and serves on the editorial boards of several journals. Dr. Chen is focused on treatment, education and research for repair of hernias, advanced minimally invasive techniques for abdominal wall reconstruction and hernia repair, repair of diaphragmatic and hiatal hernias, and surgery for chronic pain, mesh complications, and nerve entrapment.

Dr. Geeta Lal is a tenured Professor of Surgery and Pediatrics at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine.

Dr. Lal received her BS from McMaster University, and her MD at the University of Toronto. She earned an MSc at the University of Toronto and The Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute. She completed residency in General Surgery at the University of Toronto and a fellowship in Endocrine Surgical Oncology at the University of California, San Francisco.

Dr. Lal has served in many different leadership roles throughout her career. She previously headed an NIH-funded basic science laboratory and was the Associate Chief Quality Officer for the Adult Inpatient Services at her institution till July 2022. She currently co-leads the Cancer Center’s Endocrine Multidisciplinary Oncology Group and continues to maintain a busy endocrine surgery practice.

Having experienced work-related musculoskeletal symptoms herself, she is committed to increasing awareness of and developing solutions to counteract the impact of poor ergonomics on surgeons' professional and personal lives. She founded Surgical Ergonomics, a speaking, coaching and consulting business in 2021. In addition, she is a co-founder and immediate Past-President of the Society of Surgical Ergonomics. She continues to serve the society as a part of the executive team and is the current Chair of it’s new Industry Collaborations Committee. Her advocacy on this topic has led to the incorporation of a Ergonomics module in the Surgical Council On Resident Education (SCORE) curriculum. She has also co-authored the first-ever chapter on this very important topic in the upcoming edition of the Sabiston Textbook of Surgery.

Sarah A. McLaughlin, M.D., is a Professor of Surgery and chair of the Department of Surgery and a consultant in the Division of Surgical Oncology at Mayo Clinic in Florida, with a joint appointment as a consultant in Quantitative Health Sciences. Dr. McLaughlin is enterprise co-deputy director, Disease Groups, in Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center, and she is a member of the Mayo Clinic Board of Trustees. Dr. McLaughlin attended the University of Missouri where she earned her medical degree with distinction. She completed her residency in general surgery at Mayo Clinic, and as a Mayo Clinic Scholar, she completed a breast surgical oncology fellowship at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

As a surgeon, Dr. McLaughlin treats patients with breast cancer, breast health concerns and lymphedema, with a focus on survivorship after breast cancer treatment. She served as medical director of the Robert and Monica Jacoby Center for Breast Health from 2016 to 2021 where she helped develop an improved access process for breast cancer patients. In addition, she championed a cross-training interdisciplinary care model for providers. Dr. McLaughlin’s research is focused on breast cancer, high-risk features of cancer, lymphedema etiology and prediction methods. She is frequently invited to give presentation on her work, and she has achieved over 130 publications in numerous peer-reviewed journals. She serves as a section editor of Annals of Surgical Oncology and helped develop the International Consortium Health Outcome Measures for breast cancer.