Surgery Service Line Research

Surgery Service Line Research includes faculty members, affiliated surgeons, and investigators who are involved in research studies and clinical trials. The Inova Fairfax campus is strategically located in Northern Virginia in close proximity to Washington, DC, serving and caring for a culturally rich and diverse population. This allows us to study and address critical disparities in healthcare within our community.

Our team supports the research efforts for surgical services offered at all Inova hospitals in the region, including breast, cancer, cardiac, colorectal, endocrine, gastrointestinal, general, ophthalmology, plastic, thoracic, transplant, trauma, and vascular surgery care. As the only designated and verified Level 1 trauma center in Northern Virginia, the Inova Trauma Center has dedicated research staff who especially focus on improving safety, education, and trauma patient care through research.

Director of Research

Stefan Leichtle, MD, MBA, FACS

Dr. Stefan Leichtle is a Trauma and Critical Care Surgeon at Inova Fairfax Medical Campus and the Research Director for the Surgery Service Line at Inova Health System. He is board certified in general surgery and surgical critical care and he holds an MBA degree from the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University in Boston, MA.

Dr. Leichtle is nationally engaged in education, research, and health advocacy. He is an Associate Professor of Medical Education at the University of Virginia School Medicine, President of the Virginia Chapter of the American College of Surgeons, Vice-Chair of the Virginia Committee on Trauma, and an editorial board member for the American Board of Surgery’s SCORE Curriculum for Surgical Critical Care and the American Journal of Surgery. His areas of research interest include clinical studies on the assessment and improvement of care delivery in trauma and critical care surgery as well as the promotion of multi-disciplinary, collaborative research efforts crossing traditional specialty boundaries. He has (co-)authored more than 60 peer-reviewed publications, books, and book chapters.