Center for
Global Health

Associate Scholar

Languages - Filipino/Tagalog - Native, English - Fluent 

BIO STATEMENT

I completed medical school in the Philippines and migrated to the US in 2000. After surgical residency and fellowship, I have collaborated with surgeons in the Philippines and Southeast Asia on education and training in laparoscopic and robotic surgery for the past 12 years. My joint appointment at the University of the Philippines since 2012 allowed me to participate in educational, clinical, and research projects at the university and affiliated Philippine General Hospital. More recently, my advocacy for a partnership between UPenn and UP Manila resulted in a formal agreement that encompasses clinical, research and other scholarly activities. I currently am the  ACS-NSQIP Surgeon Champion and APP Lead Physician at the University of California San Francisco-Parnassus.  I continue to be engaged with multiple Philippine institutions virtually as a Visiting Professor of Surgery at St. Luke’s Medical Center and College of Medicine in Quezon City, Philippines and Visiting Associate Professor at the University of the Philippines College of Medicine. December 2021 I was awarded Honorary Fellow of the Philippine College of Surgeons for contributions to the advancement of minimally invasive surgery in the Philippines.

RECENT GLOBAL HEALTH PROJECTS

Ongoing mentorship of surgeons in the Philippines to decrease bile duct injuries during laparoscopic cholecystectomy
Established visiting observerships for 2 Filipino surgeons to visit 3 US institutions and learn techniques in minimally invasive surgery
Appointed Global Faculty Affiliate at Vin University, Hanoi, Vietnam to teach gastrointestinal surgery

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

Baskin AS, Romero-Hernandez F, Trang K, Cevallos J, Hernandez S, Colley A, Record H, Dao J, Soriano I, Bongiovanni T, Wick E. Increasing the use of language-concordant discharge instructions in general surgery: A resident-led quality improvement initiative. Surgery. 2024 Dec 30;180:109021. doi: 10.1016/j.surg.2024.109021. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 39740609.

Brian R, Gomes C, Alseidi A, Jorge I, Malino C, Knauer E, Asbun D, Deal SB, Soriano I. Online videos of robotic-assisted cholecystectomies: more harm than good? Surg Endosc. 2024 Sep;38(9):5023-5029. doi: 10.1007/s00464-024-11054-9. Epub 2024 Jul 15. PMID: 39009732; PMCID: PMC11362377.

Brian R, Bayne D, Ito T, Lager J, Edwards A, Kumar S, Soriano I, O'Sullivan P, Varas J, Chern H. An At-Home Laparoscopic Curriculum for Junior Residents in Surgery, Obstetrics/Gynecology, and Urology. MedEdPORTAL. 2024 May 24;20:11405. doi: 10.15766/mep_2374-8265.11405. PMID: 38957528; PMCID: PMC11219092.

Yi W, Perez J, Rosen C, Akalal F, Hassan I, Soriano I. Promoting a Culture of Safety in Cholecystectomy (COSIC) over a decade at a Philippine public regional hospital after the SAGES International Proctoring Course in Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy Course. Surg Endosc. 2023 Jan;37(1):613-616. doi: 10.1007/s00464-022-09355-y. Epub 2022 Jun 13. PMID: 35697851.

Strauss AL, Triggs JR, Tewksbury CM, Soriano I, Wernsing DS, Dumon KR, Williams NN, Shao JM. Conversion to Roux-En-Y Gastric Bypass: a successful means of mitigating reflux after laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy. Surg Endosc. 2023 Jul;37(7):5374-5379. doi: 10.1007/s00464-023-10024-x. Epub 2023 Mar 30. PMID: 36997653.

Singhal R, Wiggins T, Pouwels S, Rajeev Y, Madhok B, Hanif W, Tahrani AA, Graham Y, Ludwig C, Mahawar K; GENEVA Collaborators. Handling of the Covid-19 Pandemic and Its Effects on Bariatric Surgical Practice: Analysis of GENEVA Study Database. Obes Surg. 2022 Dec;32(12):3908-3921. doi: 10.1007/s11695-022-06267-7. Epub 2022 Oct 25. PMID: 36282429; PMCID: PMC9592878.

Last Updated: 10 March 2025