Sam Jessula

Background

Sam Jessula moved to Canada from France in 2007, and completed his BSc and Medical School at McGill University. He then moved to Halifax, to complete his residency in General Surgery at Dalhousie University, where he currently is a PGY3. He pursued a MSc in Community Health and Epidemiology at Dalhousie with a research project focused on novel measurements of trauma burden at the national level and identifying which mechanisms of injury can be prioritized for prevention. He also completed a cohort study examining novel analgesic techniques after open AAA repairs and also examined the utility of regular in situ simulations in a tertiary care hospital. When not at the hospital, Sam can often be found either on his bicycle exploring a new route or in the kitchen exploring a new recipe.

Research 

Trauma is a leading cause of death amongst younger Canadian. In the setting of limited resources for healthcare, the difficulty lies in understanding which mechanisms of injury would most benefit from prevention. Utilizing the Injury Prevention Priority Soring methodology, examined a 5-year cohort of all trauma resulting in hospitalization or death in Canada between 2005 and 2009 to identify which mechanisms had the highest burden of injury, and prioritized them according to four separate metrics: mortality, injury severity, resource utilization and cost. These results provide a road map for policy makers and researchers to know which mechanisms of injury to target for prevention. Across all metrics, falls revealed itself as having the highest burden of injury, which may surprise many of our trauma providers.

Selected Publications

1.- S. Jessula, M. Asbridge, R. Green, R. Romao, N. Yanchar. Where to start? Injury prevention priority scores in Canadian children. Journal of Pediatric Surgery. Accepted.

2.-S. Minor, R. Green, S. Jessula. Crash testing the dummy: review of in situ trauma simulations at a Canadian tertiary center. Canadian Journal of Surgery. Accepted.

3.-S. Jessula, M. Van Den Hof, D. Mateos-Corral, J. Mills, D. Davies, R. Romao, Predictors of need for surgical intervention and outcomes in neonates with cystic fibrosis. Journal of Pediatric Surgery. Manuscript Accepted, in press.

4.- S. Jessula, N. Murphy, N. Yanchar. Injury Severity in Pediatric ATV related Trauma in Nova Scotia. Journal of Pediatric Surgery.52.5(2017):822-825.