Education & Training, Mentorship & Leadership, DE&I
The Society of Asian Academic Surgeons (SAAS) was founded to focus on the personal and professional development of Asian academic surgeons with the belief that the best way to increase Asian representation in the leadership of academic surgery is to prepare future generations to succeed.
Towards this end, we raise money to provide scholarships for both trainees and junior faculty to help them with their career development. We also give out awards for the best research submitted by members to the Academic Surgical Congress and to the SAAS Annual Meeting to showcase the advances being made by Asians in the field.
From the beginning, our society has been fully inclusive. We defined “Asian” in the broadest sense to include not only those from East, Southeast, and South Asia, but also Persians, Arabs, Turks and any other nationality from the Asian continent. Furthermore, membership in SAAS is open to anyone of any ethnicity who has an interest in promoting underrepresented populations in any arena of academic surgery.
[Image] Dr. Susan Tsai, MD, MHS President
[Image] Dr. Eugene Kim, MD President-Elect
[Image] Dr. Daniel Chu, MD, MSPH Secretary
[Image] Yumi Hori, BA Executive Director
[Image] Dr. Tejal Brahmbhatt, MD Treasurer
In this episode of "A Coffee with Dr. Anai Kothari," the discussion focuses on how to leverage Artificial Intelligence for cancer care and research. Dr. Kothari explores the practical applications of AI in oncology, examining its role in enhancing clinical decision-making and accelerating research outcomes. In alliance with the Society of Asian Academic Surgeons, the session provides a technical perspective on integrating these emerging technologies into oncological practice to improve patient care and scientific discovery. Anai N. Kothari, MD MS is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Surgical Oncology, Department of Surgery at the Medical College of Wisconsin. He holds additional faculty appointments in the Clinical & Translational Science Institute of Southeast WI (CTSI) and the MCW Data Science Institute. He received his BS and MD at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dr. Kothari completed his General Surgery training at Loyola University Medical Center where he also earned a Master’s degree in Epidemiology with a focus on Predictive Analytics and Machine Learning. This was followed by a fellowship in Complex General Surgical Oncology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Dr. Kothari’s clinical expertise is the surgical treatment of upper gastrointestinal tract and advanced cancers of the GI tract, including stomach, liver/bile duct, and peritoneum. He is an active researcher with a focus on improving clinical care through personalizing treatment, digitalizing care delivery, and the responsible deployment of artificial intelligence. He is the Inaugural Director of the Bud and Sue Selig Hub for Surgical Data Science, Director of the MCW Cancer Center’s Integrated Cancer Data Resource, and the AI Lead for Inception Health. Dr. Kothari has published over 100 peer-reviewed scientific articles and is a member of several national societies including the Society of Surgical Oncology, American College of Surgeons, Society of Asian Academic Surgeons, Association for Academic Surgery, and the American Medical Informatics Association.
Published
Mar 2026
Allan Tsung, MD, is the S. Hurt Watts Professor and Chair of the Department of Surgery at the University of Virginia, where he leads a multi-hospital surgical enterprise spanning academic and community settings. He is an academic surgical oncologist specializing in the multidisciplinary management of liver, bile duct, and pancreatic cancers, with expertise in robotic surgery. Dr. Tsung leads a nationally recognized translational research program focused on how inflammatory and immune responses shape the tumor microenvironment and influence cancer progression, metastasis, and treatment response. His work integrates basic, translational, and clinical research, with an emphasis on developing strategies that improve outcomes and reduce disparities in surgical oncology care. He has authored more than 370 peer-reviewed publications and has served as Principal Investigator on multiple NIH R01 grants, as well as mentoring numerous trainees and junior faculty who have gone on to successful academic careers. Deeply committed to mentorship and faculty development, Dr. Tsung has directed fellowship programs, served as Vice Chair of Research, and frequently teaches courses on scientific development and NIH grant writing. Dr. Tsung is a past President of the Society of University Surgeons and the Society of Asian Academic Surgeons, and currently serves in national leadership roles across several major academic surgical organizations.
Published
Feb 2026
Tejal S. Brahmbhatt, M.D., F.A.C.S., is an Associate Professor of Surgery in the Jim and Elanore Randall Department of Surgery at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California. He completed his general surgery internship with the Washington University School of Medicine BJC Consortium, followed by a general surgery residency at the Vanderbilt Medical Center. He then pursued fellowship training in traumatology, emergency general surgery, and surgical critical care at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Brahmbhatt spent a decade on the faculty at Boston Medical Center, the flagship teaching hospital of Boston University and highest volume trauma center and safety-net hospital in the New England area. In August 2023, he was recruited to Cedars-Sinai to lead Surgical Critical Care, where he serves as Medical Director of the Surgical Intensive Care Unit and Program Director of Southern California’s oldest Surgical Critical Care fellowship. Nationally, Dr. Brahmbhatt is the President-Elect of the Society of Asian Academic Surgeons and has held leadership roles in major American trauma surgery, surgical education, and surgical critical care societies. He has a strong commitment to surgical education, developing programs that introduce medical students to surgery early in their training. He is a question writer and oral examiner for the American Board of Surgery and contributes to the Society of Critical Care Medicine’s Multidisciplinary Critical Care Knowledge Assessment Program. Dr. Brahmbhatt has received numerous teaching awards for his mentorship of medical students, residents, and fellows, many of whom have gone on to successful academic surgical careers. He also serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Surgical Research and as the Surgical Critical Care pillar lead for the Trauma Surgery & Acute Care Open Journal’s patient education series initiative. His research has been sponsored by both the National Institutes of Health and industry partners, focusing on trauma surgery and surgical critical care. He has lectured nationally and internationally on trauma surgery, emergency general surgery, surgical critical care, and surgical education. Outside of medicine, Dr. Brahmbhatt has advanced training in late Romantic-era classical music theory and composition and serves globally as a special consultant in the film production industry.
Published
Apr 2025
Jennifer F. Tseng, MD, MPH, is Utley Endowed Professor and Chair of the Deparment of Surgery at Boston University School of Medicine, and Surgeon-in-Chief at Boston Medical Center. She was formerly the founding Chief of the Division of Surgical Oncology and Clinical Co-Director of the Cancer Center at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts. Dr. Tseng is a surgical oncologist and gastrointestinal surgeon. Her practice encompasses the upper GI tract, including hepato-pancreato-biliary, gastric and upper intestinal surgery. A graduate of Stanford University and the University of California, San Francisco Medical School, Dr. Tseng completed a residency in general surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital and a research fellowship in molecular medicine at Harvard Medical School/Children's Hospital Boston. She completed a clinical fellowship in surgical oncology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. Tseng also holds a master's degree in public health from the Harvard School of Public Health. Dr. Tseng founded and directed Surgical Outcomes Analysis & Research (SOAR), a clinical and outcomes research institute initiated at UMass and now based at BIDMC. Her own research group forms the center of the newly constituted Boston Surgical Outcomes Center at BUSM/BMC. Her research interests include developing models for cancer treatment sequencing strategies, cancer biomarkers, and healthcare disparities and outcomes research.
Published
Oct 2024
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