APIC and SIS: Prevention, Diagnosis, and Management of Infections Following Surgical Stabilization of Rib and Sternal Fractures

Dr. Kartiko is a fellowship trained and an assistant professor of surgery at The George Washington University School of Medicine & Health Sciences. She is currently the associate program director of the George Washington Surgical Critical Care fellowship.  

She received her Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from Truman State University in Missouri. She completed her MD/PhD program at Texas A&M University and completed general surgery residency at Albert Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia.  She then went on to receive fellowship training in Surgical Critical Care at Boston University.  

Dr. Kartiko is triple boarded in general surgery, surgical critical care and neurocritical care, with a busy practice in trauma/emergency general surgery and critical care.  

Prior to joining the George Washington University, she was an assistant professor at University of Massachusetts Medical School- Baystate where she and her team built a Fall Prevention program for older adult.   She continued to implement multiple initiatives at George Washington University such as a comprehensive Fall Prevention program, In-hospital Alcohol Withdrawal treatment protocol, and other Performance Improvement projects hospital-wide.  

Dr. Kartiko has also published in multiple peer-reviewed journals on her research topic of interest including topics in critical care, trauma surgery, rib related injuries and geriatric trauma. Her publications can be found in peer-reviewed journals such as Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery, Surgery, JAMA Surgery, Journal of American College of Surgeon and Journal of Intensive Care Medicine. 

She is an active member of several national organization including Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma and Association of Academic Surgery and Society of Critical Care Medicine. She is also the current chair of the publication committee of the Chest Wall Injury Society. 

Dr. Forrester is a fellowship-trained surgeon and an assistant professor of surgery in the Stanford Medicine Division of Acute Care Surgery. He is the associate trauma medical director for Stanford Medicine and the medical director of the Stanford Chest Wall Injury Center. Prior to joining Stanford Medicine, Dr. Forrester was an epidemic intelligence service officer for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). He worked in the bacterial pathogen branch in the Division of Vector-Borne Diseases of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases. The CDC honored him for excellence in international, occupational, and environmental health. He has helped advance the field of acute care surgery by participating in numerous quality improvement initiatives. He co-developed COVID-19 tracheostomy guidelines and led the team performing these procedures for Stanford Medicine. He also helped develop the best practice guidelines for surgical stabilization of rib fracture at Stanford Medicine. Dr. Forrester has co-authored more than 120 articles and chapters published in Surgery, the Journal of Patient Safety, Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery, Journal of the American College of Surgeons, JAMA Surgery, CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, Clinical Infectious Diseases, Emerging Infections, and elsewhere. Topics have included pain management after chest wall surgery, approaches to surgical stabilization of rib fractures, and health care-associated infections. Dr. Forrester frequently presents nationally at meetings of the American College of Surgeons, AAST, Chest Wall Injury Society, Surgical Infection Society, Epidemiological Intelligence Service-CDC, and other organizations. He is a member of the Chest Wall Injury Society, Surgical Infection Society, and Wilderness Medicine Society where he holds leadership positions. He is the moderator for the monthly Chest Wall Injury Society Case review series. Dr. Forrester is an associate member of the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma. In the field of acute care surgery, he has particular clinical interest in patients with chest wall injury and enterocutaneous and enteroatmospheric fistulae.

Fredric Pieracci, MD, MPH, FACS is the Director of Surgery at Denver Health Medical Center in Denver, Colorado, USA, and is originally from Chicago, Illinois.  He received both his Bachelor of Arts degree in biology and his medical degree from The University of Pennsylvania.  Dr. Pieracci completed residencies in both general surgery and general preventive medicine at the New York Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City. During this time, he also obtained a Master’s Degree in Public Health from Columbia University.  Additional fellowship training in Trauma, Acute Care Surgery, and Surgical Critical Care was completed at the University of Colorado and Denver Health Medical Center. He is currently a Professor of Surgery at the University of Colorado, and the Director of Surgery at Denver Health Medical Center. In addition to trauma and ICU call, he maintains busy elective practices in both thoracic and bariatric surgery.  He is also a past president of the Denver Health Medical Staff. Dr. Pieracci is board certified in general surgery, general preventive medicine, and surgical critical care.

Research interests of Dr. Pieracci include surgical stabilization of rib fractures (SSRF) and bariatric surgery. Specific areas of current research include indications for and timing of SSRF, as well as the relationship between both scapula and clavicle fractures and SSRF. Dr. Pieracci is active in many national surgical societies, including the American College of Surgeons, Society of Critical Care Medicine, American College of Chest Physicians, American Association for the Surgery of Trauma, Surgical Infection Society, Chest Wall Injury Society, The Southwestern Surgical Society, and the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery.

Dr. Brad Faliks is an acute care surgeon at HonorHealth Scottsdale Osborn Medical Center. He is originally from Plainview, New York. He received his Bachelors in Science from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor before working and doing research in the Extracorporeal Life Support Lab there. Next, returned home for medical school at Zucker SOM at Hofstra/Northwell in Uniondale, New York. He stayed at Hofstra/Northwell for general surgery residency in Queens, New York. He recently completed surgical critical care fellowship at Stanford University in Palo Alto.

Dr. Faliks practices in emergency and elective general surgery, trauma surgery, and surgical critical care. His interests include surgical education, management of chest wall injury, and surgical infection prevention. He is a member of several national societies including the American College of Surgeons, the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma, Society for Critical Care Medicine, and Chest Wall Injury Society.