This year the ABS is sponsoring Phillip Jenkins M.D. and Jacob Reich, M.D., two surgeons from the 2026-2027 cohort of ABMS Scholars.
Dr. Jenkins is a general surgery resident at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) in Portland, Oregon where he is also doing postdoctoral research in clinical and biomedical informatics as well as a clinical informatics fellowship. He is currently conducting research at the intersection of informatics, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and natural language processing, focusing on applications in surgical education and clinical surgical practice. He completed his medical training at the University of Florida College of Medicine in Gainesville, Florida and is currently pursuing a Master of Science degree in division of informatics and clinical epidemiology at OHSU.
Dr. Reich is a general surgery resident at Montefiore Medical Center/Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, New York. He is currently a research fellow at Northwell Health’s Intraoperative Performance Analytics Laboratory, where he explores the integration of artificial intelligence and surgery, using computer vision and operative kinematics to improve intraoperative performance and surgical training. Concurrently, he is pursuing an MBA at Columbia Business School. He completed his medical training at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University in Philadelphia.
Drs. Jenkins and Reich were selected as part of the ABMS Scholars cohort based on their project proposals, Operationalizing Surgical Informatics Training: Competency Framework Development and Dual-Certification Pathway Evaluation at a Single Academic Center and Measuring Surgical Performance Improvement Using OPI-based Scoring Before and After Robotic Simulation Exercises, respectively.
About the ABMS Scholars Program
The ABMS Scholars Program is a one-year, part-time grant program to support early-career physicians and researchers in leadership development and research efforts that advance the ABMS mission and align with current research priorities.
Grants of $15,000 are awarded to help cover research and travel expenses associated with program participation and research facilitation. In addition to funding, the scholars receive mentorship, peer collaboration, and research development support and opportunities.
The selection process looks at the quality of proposed research projects, the relevance of the research to the ABMS and co-sponsoring boards’ mission and the certification community, and the likelihood of research progress during the scholar year.
The 2026-2027 ABMS Scholars cohort includes participants from 14 ABMS Member Boards and will culminate with research presentations at the 2027 ABMS Conference before a national audience of leaders, educators, and clinicians.