Overview
Grady Memorial Hospital in metro Atlanta — an internationally recognized teaching hospital with a historic commitment to serving the health needs of the most vulnerable — is among the largest public hospitals in the Southeast. Physicians of the Emory University School of Medicine provide about 80% of the care at Grady, with the other 20% is provided by Morehouse School of Medicine and Grady-employed physicians.
Faculty of the Emory Department of Surgery are members of the physician staff of Grady's Level I trauma center, surgical critical care service, burn center, and the hospital's breast cancer, cardiothoracic surgery, oral and maxillofacial surgery, plastic and reconstructive surgery, and vascular surgery programs.
The size of Grady's service area, the hospital's large and diverse in- and out-patient volume, and the multiplicity of conditions the hospital treats affords vast opportunities for Emory Surgery physician-researchers to conduct significant investigative studies and clinical trials.
Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery
Gary F. Bouloux, DDS, MD, MDSc
Dr. Bouloux is the chief of the oral surgery service at Grady. He has conducted several studies of temporomandibular joint dysfunction (TMJ), including a five-year, Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Foundation-funded clinical study that compared the injection of hyaluronic acid, corticosteroid, and placebo during arthrocentesis for TMJ. He has also evaluated reconstruction plates used in the management of jaw fractures and mandibular resection, and investigated the metal hypersensitivity that can develop following total joint replacement.
Trauma/Surgical Critical Care
Christopher Dente, MD
Dr. Dente's current research is focused on the creation and use of biomarker and clinical data warehouse-based decision support tools. He is the principal investigator of the Emory site of a Department of Defense (DoD)-funded pilot wound closure study that is working to develop a predictive system for wound closure based on the identification of chemical and molecular biomarkers in informed consent-derived tissue and fluid samples that appear to forecast successful closure. He is also the lead site investigator at Grady's trauma center for the multi-center Surgical Critical Care Initiative (SC2i), also sponsored by the DoD. SC2i is translating decision-making tools developed by the DoD for the battlefield to civilian critical care.
Jason D. Sciarretta, MD
Dr. Sciarretta has an interest in clinical outcomes research for Trauma and Emergency General Surgery. His collaborative research supports multi-center trials to address complex questions and generate new knowledge to clinical practice. His research has focused on vascular trauma in both adults and adolescence, severe thoracic injury, and damage control surgery. He has published numerous articles supporting scientific progress and improvement in trauma care.
Randi Smith, MD, MPH
Dr. Smith is a Steering Committee member of the Violence Prevention Task Force, based out of the Injury Prevention Research Center at Emory (IPRCE), and is the Founder and Medical Director of The Interrupting Violence in Youth and Young Adults (IVYY) Project, a violence intervention program at Grady. Her research focuses on physical and psychological aspects of impairment and recovery following occurrences of traumatic injury, and she uses a variety of methods to better understand the root causes of violence and best practices of violence intervention.
Vascular Surgery
Jaime Benarroch-Gampel, MD, MS
Dr. Jaime Benarroch-Gampel, MD, MS, is an Associate Professor of Surgery at Emory University and a vascular surgeon at Grady Memorial Hospital. His research leverages national databases to evaluate procedural outcomes and appropriateness of care, with a particular focus on vascular trauma and venous disease. Through his work, Dr. Benarroch-Gampel aims to enhance the understanding of optimal treatment strategies and improve patient outcomes in vascular surgery.
At Grady, he plays a critical role in delivering high-quality vascular care and advancing the division’s commitment to research and education. Dr. Benarroch-Gampel is also deeply involved in mentoring trainees and has contributed to several peer-reviewed publications that address key issues in vascular surgery.
Ravi Rajani, MD
Dr. Rajani has served as the principal investigator for several trauma-specific clinical trials and is particularly interested in refining thoracic stent graft technology for treating blunt aortic injury. Additionally, Dr. Rajani has chaired multiple national leadership committees and has authored multiple high-impact publications in peer-reviewed journals. He is the President-Elect of the Vascular and Endovascular Surgery Society and the Editor of Annals of Vascular Surgery. Dr. Rajani has previously served as the Associate Program Director for the Emory General Surgery residency and is a recipient of the Junior Resident Teaching Award, the J. Richard Amerson Teaching Award, and the Dean's Teaching Award at Emory University School of Medicine.
Christopher Ramos, MD
Dr Ramos focuses on outcomes research in patients with peripheral arterial disease, emphasizing the impact of social determinants of health as well as outcomes research in patients following vascular trauma. At Grady, his work is dedicated to improving outcomes in dialysis access referral for underserved populations, with a particular focus on undocumented immigrants. His research aims to address healthcare disparities and enhance equity in vascular care. Dr. Ramos also serves as the site investigator for multiple industry-sponsored studies on mechanical thrombectomy devices for pulmonary embolism, advancing the division’s contributions to research and innovation.
Victoria J. Teodorescu, MD, MBA, RVT
Dr. Teodorescu's research focuses on lower extremity peripheral artery disease, particularly the evaluation of stem-cell therapy for non-reconstructive disease; ultrasound; and all aspects of hemodialysis access. The latter interest has led to her being named to the divisional and medical review boards of the Network of the South Atlantic of the IPRO End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) Network, for which she evaluates public health policy and outcomes for this very sick patient population.