Surgical quality
& outcomes
Understanding variation in complications, healthcare use, and spending—and identifying opportunities to improve care.
Outcomes · Complications · MedicareSURGERY / RESEARCH / POLICY
Ahmad M.
Hider.
MD, MPhil
Better surgical care.
From the operation to the system.
National Clinician Scholar at the University of Michigan.
General Surgery Resident at the University of Colorado.
CARDIOTHORACIC SURGERY
Quality. Value. Equity.
AN ACADEMIC LIFE IN SURGERYMeet Ahmad
University of MichiganUniversity of ColoradoNational Clinician Scholars Program
01 ABOUT
A surgeon’s perspective.
A broader view of care.
How can we make surgical care safer, more effective, and more equitable?
I am a general surgery resident at the University of Colorado and a National Clinician Scholar at the University of Michigan. My research examines the outcomes, spending, and policies that shape the care patients receive.
My long-term goal is to become an academic cardiothoracic surgeon-scientist whose work informs health policy and improves the quality, value, and equity of surgical care. I am especially interested in how payment reform, quality measurement, and care delivery shape access, outcomes, and spending in cardiothoracic surgery.
My path to surgery02 RESEARCH
Better questions.
Better care.
Four connected areas of work, grounded in the experience of patients and the practice of surgery.
Surgical quality
Cardiothoracic
surgery
Studying infection after cardiac surgery, access to advanced heart failure therapies, ergonomics, and operative efficiency.
Cardiac surgery · Access · RecoveryHealth policy
& value
Examining how quality measurement, payment policy, and new treatments influence access to surgical care.
Payment · Quality measures · GLP-1sSurgical education
& performance
Connecting operative video and computer vision with educational measurement and clinical outcomes.
Video · Skill assessment · EducationFEATURED STUDY / 2026
Surgery ends.
Recovery continues.
Understanding the cost of infection after cardiac surgery.
Across 239,039 procedures at 1,007 hospitals, higher postoperative infection rates were associated with greater Medicare spending and worse outcomes over 180 days.
239,039cardiac surgery procedures
1,007hospitals across the United States
$15,757higher mean spending at high versus low infection-rate hospitals
03 PUBLICATIONS
Evidence in print.
012026
THE JOURNAL OF THORACIC AND CARDIOVASCULAR SURGERY
Interhospital Variation in 180-Day Infections and Associated Medicare Spending After Cardiac Surgery
Hospital variation in postoperative infection and associated Medicare spending.
022025
JAMA HEALTH FORUM · VIEWPOINT
Carbon Emissions and Bundled Payments—Expanding the Reach of Value-Based Care
Policy recommendations to connect bundled payments with emissions reporting and financial incentives for more sustainable surgical care.
ALSO PUBLISHED IN
JAMA Surgery / JAMA Health Forum / World Journal of Surgery / Surgery for Obesity and Related Diseases
View publications on Google Scholar
04 PATH & LEADERSHIP
Dearborn roots.
A wider view.
My path has connected clinical medicine, research, and public service.
Raised in Dearborn, Michigan, I studied biomolecular science at the University of Michigan, earned an MPhil in translational biomedical research at Cambridge, and returned to Michigan for medical school before beginning general surgery residency in Colorado.
My policy work has included the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy’s Cancer Moonshot initiative and involvement in health policy efforts through national surgical organizations.
MichiganCambridgeColorado
05 CONTACT
Good work starts
with a conversation.
I welcome conversations about research collaboration, surgical education, health policy, and cardiothoracic surgery.
Ahmad M. Hider, MD, MPhil
National Clinician Scholar, University of Michigan
General Surgery Resident, University of Colorado