Mission Statement    

     
Our mission is to investigate the factors that affect surgical outcomes.  By our research, we seek to elucidate and thus help to decrease perioperative morbidity and mortality, as well as increase overall survival and quality of life.  We hope, as part of the surgical outcomes research community, to improve overall outcomes for patients with surgical diseases. 

The director of SOAR, Dr. Jennifer F. Tseng, has been supported by the  Pancreatic Cancer Alliance  through the UMass Cancer Center and the Department of Cancer Biology, and has a mandate to focus a substantial proportion of her efforts on improving survival and quality of life for patients with pancreatic cancer.  She has spearheaded an integrated UMass Pancreas Program.     

Coinvestigators at SOAR include Dr. Fred Anderson, Director of the Center for Outcomes Research; Dr. Giles Whalen, Vice-Chair of Surgery and Chief of Surgical Oncology and Endocrine Surgery; Dr. Shimul Shah, Transplant Surgery, and Dr. Karim Alavi, Colorectal Surgery, all at UMass as well as other investigators from UMass and from collaborating institutions.