About Dr. Soegaard Ballester, MD, MBMI
Dr. Soegaard Ballester is a chief resident in general surgery at the University of Pennsylvania. She plans to pursue a career in general thoracic surgery with an academic focus on clinical informatics and healthcare innovation. Upon completing residency in 2025, she plans to obtain further training in cardiothoracic surgery.
During her research time, she focused on leveraging clinical informatics for the improvement of surgical science and care. Under the mentorship of Dr. Heather Wachtel, her research projects spanned topics such as EHR tools and data extraction, clinical decision support, and telehealth for surgical care delivery. She also completed a Masters in Biomedical Informatics at the University of Pennsylvania, received her board certification in Clinical Informatics, and helped start the Surgical and Procedural Informatics Working Group for the American Medical Informatics Association. Her academic activities were supported by a T32 Training Grant in Surgical Oncology and a Penn Medicine Gastrointestinal Oncology Program Transformational Grant.
Dr. Soegaard was born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico. She completed her undergraduate studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a Science Bachelor in Biological Engineering. She received her medical degree from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.
Education
2019 - 2022
MBMI - Masters of Biomedical Informatics
Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
2012 - 2017
MD - Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
2008 - 2012
SB - Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Societies
2022 - present
General Thoracic Surgery Club (Member)
2020 - present
Women in Thoracic Surgery (Member)
2020 - present
Society of Thoracic Surgeons (Member)
2020 - present
Society of Surgical Oncology (Member)
2017 - present
Association of Women Surgeons (Member)
2015 - present
Association for Academic Surgery (Member)
2015 - present
American Medical Informatics Association
(Member, Surgical and Procedural Informatics Working Group)
2015 - present
American College of Surgeons
(Member, Healthcare Information Technology Committee)
Awards
2023
Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania at HUP Cedar Honorable Mention for “Improving Surgical Care Delivery in a Novel Hub-and-Spoke Model,”
Quality and Patient Safety Awards, University of Pennsylvania Health System
2023
American Association for Thoracic Surgery Member for a Day Program Travel Award recipient
2022 - 2023
Innovation Fellow at Penn Center for Cancer Innovation
2022
ASAIO Oral Abstract Presentation Award
“The Clinical Impact of Missing Support Contraindications in Extracorporeal Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (eCPR): Opportunity for Electronic Clinical Decision Triage?],”
American Society for Artificial Internal Organs 67th Annual Conference
2022
Article “A Mobile, Electronic Health Record-Connected Application for Managing Team Workflows in Inpatient Care”
selected as “Top Ten Most Talked about Papers in 2022” in Applied Clinical Informatics
2021 - 2023
T32 Training Program in Surgical Oncology Research at Penn Medicine
2018
90’s ABSITE Club, (for residents scoring above the 90th percentile)
University of Pennsylvania Department of Surgery
2017
Jonathan Rhodes Prize for Surgical Scholarship
University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine
2016
Clinical Practices of the University of Pennsylvania Operational Award for “Postoperative Telehealth Follow-up Visits after Routine Low-Risk Surgery,” Quality and Patient Safety Awards, University of Pennsylvania Health System
2016
University of Pennsylvania Health System Honorable Mention for “Carelign: Reimagining Interdisciplinary Care Coordination” Quality and Patient Safety Awards, University of Pennsylvania Health System
2016
First Place Award (Carelign: Upgrading from Outdated Paper to Real Time, Interdisciplinary Mobile Handoffs)
Delaware Valley Patient Safety and Quality Award, Health Care Improvement Foundation
2012 - 2017
Perelman Scholar Full-tuition Merit Scholarship Recipient
University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine
2011
Amgen Scholar, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Amgen Scholars Program
Research
Her primary research focus has been the creation and implementation of digital tools within the EHR as well as adjacent custom applications that support clinicians’ ability to efficiently deliver care and effectively make clinical decisions. She has successfully contributed to several efforts to develop and implement award-winning informatics solutions to improve care delivery, quality, and safety within the Penn Medicine Health System. Specific prior projects include:
- Carelign handoff application development and implementation (Penn Medicine, 2015 - 2016)
- Development and implementation of electronic health Record documentation tools for synoptic operative reporting to comply with new commission on cancer standards (Penn Medicine, 2020 - 2023)
- Development and implementation of electronic health record clinical decision support tools for outpatient thyroid nodule management (Penn Medicine, 2021 - 2023)
- Development and implementation of electronic health record-connected alerting and dashboard tools to support in-hospital clinical emergencies (Penn Medicine, 2021 - present)
In addition to the contributions described above, I have investigated the appropriate uses of telehealth for surgical patients. Prior projects include:
- Gastrointestinal Surgery Postoperative Telehealth Visit Pilot (Penn Surgery, 2015 - 2016)
- Multispecialty assessment of suitability of telehealth for preoperative history and physical update visits (Penn Medicine, 2021 - 2023)
Publications
Research Publications, Peer-Reviewed
- Ginzberg SP*, Gasior JA*, Passman JE, Soegaard Ballester JM, Finn CB, Karakousis GC, Kelz RR, Wachtel H. Disparities in Presentation, Treatment, and Survival in Anaplastic Thyroid Cancer. Annals of Surgical Oncology. 2023;30(11):6788-6798.
- Finn CB, Sharpe JE, Krumeich LN, Ginzberg SP, Soegaard Ballester JM, Tong JK, Wachtel H, Fraker DL, Kelz RR. Utilization and Costs of Same-Day Surgery Versus Overnight Admission for Total Thyroidectomy: A Multi-State, All-Payer Analysis. Surgery. In Press.
- Ginzberg SP, Roberson JL, Nehemiah A, Soegaard Ballester JM, Warshauer AK, Wachtel H, Erdman MS, Dlugosz KL, George LJ, Lynn JC, Martin ND, Myers JS. Time to Transfer as a Quality Improvement Imperative: Implications of a Hub-and-Spoke Health System Model on the Timing of Emergency Procedures. The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety. In Submission
- Soegaard Ballester JM, Ginzberg SP, Stein J, Wachtel H, Mahmoud NN. Preoperative History and Physical Update Visits Offer Limited Clinical Value in Colorectal Surgery. American Journal of Surgery. ePub ahead of print: March 28, 2023. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amjsurg.2023.03.027
- Soegaard Ballester JM, Finn CB, Ginzberg SP, Kelz RR, Wachtel H. Thyroid Cancer Pathologic Upstaging: Frequency and Related Factors. American Journal of Surgery. ePub ahead of print: March 24, 2023. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amjsurg.2023.03.023
- Ginzberg SP, Soegaard Ballester JM, Wirtalla CJ, Pryma DA, Mandel SJ, Kelz RR, Wachtel H. Insurance-Based Disparities in Guideline-Concordant Thyroid Cancer Treatment in the Era of De-Escalation. Journal of Surgical Research. Accepted.
- Ginzberg SP, Soegaard Ballester JM, Wirtalla CJ, Morales KH, Pryma DA, Mandel SJ, Kelz RR, Wachtel H. Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Appropriate Thyroid Cancer Treatment, Before and After the Release of the 2015 American Thyroid Association Guidelines. Annals of Surgical Oncology. 2023. PMID: 36749501.
- Soegaard Ballester JM*, Hare AJ*, Adusumalli S, Hanson CW. Training digital natives to transform healthcare: Recommendations for integrating applied health informatics into undergraduate medical education. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association. 2022 Dec 13; 30(1):139–143. PMID: 36323268.
- Soegaard Ballester JM*, Goodsell KE*, Ermer JP, Karakousis GC, Miura JT, Saur NM, Mahmoud NN, Brooks A, Tchou JC, Gabriel PE, Shulman LN, Wachtel H. New Operative Reporting Standards: Where We Stand Now and Opportunities for Innovation. Annals of Surgical Oncology. 2022 Mar;29(3):1797-1804. PMID: 34523005.
- Soegaard Ballester JM, Bass GD, Urbani R, Fala G, Patel R, Leri D, Steinkamp JM, Denson J, Rosin R, Adusumalli S, Hanson CW, Koppel R, Airan-Javia, S. A mobile, EHR-connected application for managing team-workflow in inpatient care. Applied Clinical Informatics, 12 (5): 1120–1134 (2021). PMID: 34937103
- Ermer JP, Soegaard Ballester JM, Go BC, Philipson B, Gabriel PE, Pryma DA, Fraker DL, Kelz RR, Wachtel H. Endocrine Surgical Procedures During COVID-19: Patient Prioritization and Time to Surgery. Journal of Surgical Research, Dec 2021. 268:459–464. PMID: 34416419.
- Soegaard Ballester JM, Scott MF, Owei L, Neylan C, Hanson CW, Morris JB. Patient Preference for Timesaving Telehealth Postoperative Visits after Routine Surgery in an Urban Setting. Surgery 163(4):672-679 (2018). PMID: 29398042.
- Zoghbi VM, Caskey RC, Soegaard Ballester JM, Dumon KR, Brooks AD, Morris JB, Dempsey DT. “How To” Videos Improve Residents Performance of Essential Perioperative EMR and Clinical Tasks. Journal of Surgical Education. 75(2): 489-496 (2018). PMID: 28801082.
- Shoeb A, Kharbouch A, Soegaard J, Schachter S, Guttag J. A machine-learning algorithm for detecting seizure termination in scalp EEG. Epilepsy & Behavior 22 Suppl 1:S36-43 (2011). PMID: 22078516.
Editorials, Reviews, and Book Chapters
- Han JJ, Soegaard Ballester JM, Cochran A. “Chose Your Own Threat” – A Modern Paradigm for Academic Surgery. JAMA Surgery. In Press.
- Soegaard Ballester JM, Han JJ, Yong C. Addressing Functional Biases in Procedural Environments. Annals of Surgery, 2022 Mar 1;275(3):e544-e546. PMID: 34520425.
- Han JJ, Soegaard Ballester JM, Aarons CB. Finding Alignment Between Numbers and Values in Medical Education. Medical Education. 55 (5): 553–55 (2021). PMID: 33619742.
- Swain JD, Soegaard Ballester JM, Luc JGY, Han JJ. Burning the Candle at Both Ends: Mitigating Surgeon Burnout at the Training Stages. J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg. 162 (2): 637–42. (2021). PMID: 32792150
- Soegaard Ballester JM, Halpern CH, Williams NN, Dumon KR. Non-Surgical Interventional Modalities for the Treatment of Obesity. In: Wadden, TA, Bray, GA, editors. Handbook of Obesity Treatment, 2e. New York: The Guilford Press; 2018. p. 531-551.