Resident Surgeon’s Papers Receive Multiple First Place Honors

While deployed overseas, amid the chaos of war, a young soldier’s dream took root.

This is when Robert Wood, DO, first glimpsed his future while witnessing the meticulous care military surgeons provided to injured troops. But his path from battlefield to operating room was far from smooth.

When Dr. Wood shared his aspirations with his commanding officer, he was met with harsh skepticism.

“Grunts like you don’t make it through medical school,” the officer said, attempting to crush the young soldier’s hopes. For many, such words might have been a death knell for their ambitions. For Dr. Wood, they became fuel for unyielding determination.

In November, Wood accepted first place honors at the Oregon Association of Orthopaedic Surgeons 2024 conference in Eugene for his paper on Pericapsular Nerve Group Block Provides Similar Pain Relief with Improved Postoperative Mobility Compared to Femoral Nerve Blocks and Fascia Iliaca Blocks in Surgically Treated Hip Fractures.

“It looked at postoperative ambulating after hip surgery depending upon which type of preoperative nerve block the patient received,” Wood said. “We found that patients who received a newer kind of block called a PENG block had similar pain control but ambulated earlier than patients that received more traditional femoral nerve or fascia iliaca blocks. This will likely help our patients because it can give us a targeted intervention to help us get them moving earlier after surgery.”

Earlier this spring the fourth-year resident at Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center was recognized at the American Osteopathic Academy of Orthopedics’ national meeting. Two other research papers were honored with first-place awards — a remarkable achievement that underscores his dedication to advancing the field.

Dr. Wood’s first paper examined the use of a new irrigation solution in the operating room to reduce post-operative infections. This paper took first place in the category of orthopedic trauma surgery.

The paper was competing against abstracts submitted from academic institutions throughout the country.

In the study, he looked at treatment given to orthopedic trauma patients with lower extremity fractures. One group of patients received intraoperative vancomycin powder and the other group got both vancomycin powder and the new irrigation solution. The study showed that patients who had both the powder with the irrigation solution had a significantly lower rate of post-operative infections in the 90-day post-operative period.

“It took us about six months to go through the data, run the statistical analysis and put together the actual paper and final presentation,” Dr. Wood said. “Zoe Herrera is instrumental in looking at the statistics and running the data. We couldn’t do research without her.”

Herrera is a biostatistician with Samaritan Academic Affairs. The project was supervised by senior author Jacqueline Krumrey, MD.

Dr. Wood’s second award-winning paper looked at postoperative mortality rates in the first 90 days of surgery for patients who had a hip fracture treated with surgery.

“What we found was if the patient doesn’t ambulate or take steps in the first three days after surgery, they had an 18 times higher risk of passing away in the first 90 days after surgery,” Dr. Wood said. “If we are aggressive about getting patients up and ambulating in the first three days after surgery, we significantly reduce their risks of mortality.”

The resident student has had his work published in multiple journals including articles in the Journal of Osteopathic Medicine, The Cureus Journal of Medical Science and the Journal of Hand Surgery.

“We’ve have nearly a dozen studies published in major journals within the last year,” Dr. Wood said. “Research is something I am super passionate about.”

After graduating from college, Wood enlisted in the U.S. Army where he served two tours of duty overseas, performing military intelligence collection as a cryptologic linguist. He received a joint service commendation medal for distinguished service on deployment.

“When I was in the army, I saw soldiers taken out of the fight because of injuries,” Dr. Wood said. “In the military medicine world, orthopedic sports surgeons were the ones getting them back in action. I saw it happen several times and I can remember just thinking ‘I want to be that guy’ that gets everybody back in the fight.”

Before getting into medical school, Dr. Wood earned a second bachelor’s degree while fulfilling his prerequisites, the conversation with his commanding officer back in the field motivated him.

“I kept it in the back of my mind that he said I’m some grunt who can’t become a doctor,” Dr. Wood said.

Dr. Wood’s wife, Meghan Wood, DO, recently graduated from Samaritan’s family medicine residency program and is now practicing at Samaritan Medical Group Family Medicine – Ninth St. in Corvallis.

“We are definitely die-hard Samaritan people,” Dr. Wood said. “I met Meghan at med school in Pennsylvania and did the couples match for residency. We interviewed out here and just fell in love with the program and the people and everything about the hospital. This was our top choice, and we were happy to get out here.”