
Ryan Ellis, MD
Health Services Research T32 Postdoctoral Fellow
General Surgery Resident, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
What is your background and research interest?
I am a general surgery resident at Northwestern who has completed three clinical years. My surgical interests are primarily in oncology, with research interests focusing on delivery of health services in complex cancer care.
What attracted you to the master’s in Health Services and Outcomes Research (HSOR)?
Primarily the faculty and the ringing endorsements the program received from previous students. Studying health services is common in my peer group, and everyone I know who had previously completed the master’s program strongly encouraged me to do so as well.
What is your independent research project?
I have a few projects going on simultaneously, but my biggest project involves exploring the relationship between hospital volume and outcomes following complex cancer surgery. The tendency for patients at high-volume centers to do significantly better than those at low-volume centers is well defined in the literature, but coming up with a way to positively affect the relationship has been elusive. My work centers on further defining the association and designing ways to use it in helping hospitals improve care delivery.
How is the master’s in HSOR helping you reach your goals?
Most of the questions I am interested in require big data and rigorous methodology. I think there is a misconception that anyone with a statistics program can get access to a dataset, crunch numbers, and publish. In order for me to address the health services questions I am interested in, I believe I have to be well educated in the statistics and methodological assumptions used in health services and big data, and the HSOR master’s program provides ample training in that area.
What stands out about the masters in HSOR?
The approachability of the faculty. Because the HSOR program is relatively small, every faculty member knows your name and your research interests. Everyone has an open door policy and is happy to help, not only with coursework, but also with your broader research projects.