SSI’s Andy Kampfschulte presents at anesthesia conference

On May 19, 2024, Andy Kampfschulte, Ph.D. candidate in the USC Population, Health and Place (PHP) doctoral program, presented at the International Anesthesia Research Society (IARS) Meeting in Seattle, Washington.

His poster presentation “Geography of Healthcare Access: Implications for anesthesiology and perioperative medicine” was at the pre-eminent research-focused meeting for anesthesiology.

Working with Jonathan M. Tan, MD, of Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA), Kampfschulte is using granular patient data to better understand how pediatric patients achieve transportation to CHLA in order to improve care delivery. By geocoding patient addresses and evaluating patient population characteristics, distances to care, and variation in commute time, Kampfschulte’s results are helping to contextualize the obstacles that vulnerable patients face in order to receive care.

Tan, assistant professor of clinical anesthesiology and spatial sciences with the CHLA Department of Anesthesiology Critical Care Medicine and the USC Spatial Sciences Institute, congratulated Kampfschulte on his effective presentation communicating science and data to anesthesiologists with a wide range of backgrounds, experiences, and domains. “Andy received a lot of great feedback from the audience and also provided insights about the statistical analysis in the presentations by other researchers,” said Tan.

Kampfschulte said, “Translating technical research findings in clear and concise is a skill that needs constant attention, and IARS was a great opportunity to do just that with a broader group of healthcare professionals. In addition to presenting, I also had the opportunity to take an NIH grant-writing workshop, which further developed how I communicate my research.”

Thanks to continued support from The Saban Research Institute at CHLA, Kampfschulte is expanding this line of research into his fourth year in the PHP program. He and Tan aim to build on their findings to look more closely at diagnostic and environmental factors.

To learn more about the USC Population, Health and Place Ph.D. program offered by the Spatial Sciences Institute at the University of Southern California, visit https://dornsife.usc.edu/spatial/ph-d-population-health-and-place/.