Resident, Section of Neurosurgery, Department of Surgery
University of Manitoba
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Alwyn T. Gomez BSc MD is currently a resident physician in the Section of Neurosurgery as well as a PhD candidate in Department of Human Anatomy and Cell Science at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Cananda. Dr. Gomez grew up in Halifax, Nova Scotia where he attended Saint Mary’s University and obtained his BSc with honours in chemistry and major in mathematics. It was during this time that he was first introduced to research, working in a synthetic organic chemistry laboratory, through the support of Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Undergraduate Student Research Awards. Beyond his academic interests, Dr. Gomez served on the university’s Academic Senate as well as on the Board of Governors and was elected president of the Saint Mary’s Students’ Association.
Dr. Gomez subsequently went on to complete his MD at Dalhousie University. During this time his research interests moved from the benchtop to the desktop as he saw his first glimpse of the impact data science can have on real-world problems. Through his time in medical school, he helped develop a blood product ordering algorithm for the Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre that more accurately predicted future blood product demand by incorporating real-time data on inpatient hemoglobin values. It significantly reduced the wastage of blood products and was implemented throughout the province, saving hundreds of thousands of dollars. The initiative was awarded first place nationally in the category of “Excellence and Innovation in Interdepartmental Experience” at the Cerner Advancing Clinical Excellence Awards.
It was also during this time that Dr. Gomez was introduced to the world of neurosurgery through the local faculty. Fascinated by the impactful nature of the specialty and recognizing the vast potential for future advancement, Dr. Gomez decided to pursue his post-graduate medical education in neurosurgery and was fortunate to match to the University of Manitoba for this training.
Currently, Dr. Gomez is completing a PhD under the supervision of Dr. Frederick Zeiler through the Clinician Investigator Program at the University of Manitoba. His research focuses on leveraging advanced data science and signal processing techniques to non-invasively monitor cerebrovascular physiology in moderate and severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) patients through the acute and chronic phases of injury. This work, supported through the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), aims to improve our understanding of the temporal evolution of cerebrovascular dysfunction following TBI and its association with clinical outcomes in order to improve prognostication following TBI.
Clinically, Dr. Gomez is interested in cerebrovascular/endovascualr and skull base neurosurgery and hopes to pursue subspecialty training in open, edoscopic, and endovascular operative techniques. Ultimately, Dr. Gomez would like to translate the advancements made in cerebrovascular physiologic monitoring during his PhD training to the management of cerebrovascular pathologies such as aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage and the post-operative management of arteriovenous malformations and carotid stenosis.
His publication record can be found on his Google Scholar profile and he is active on Twitter @alwyngomez.
Saturday, April 22, 2023
2:21pm – 2:29pm PST
Disclosure(s): No financial relationships to disclose