Welcome Our 2026 MPOG Outcome Research Fellows
We are excited to announce Dr. Nicholas Mendez and Dr. Irum Khan from the University of California San Francisco as our 2026-2027 Outcomes Research Fellows. This one-year fellowship offers researchers close mentorship and engagement within MPOG, culminating in a Practicum Capstone Project utilizing MPOG data.
Nicholas Mendez, MD is an Assistant Professor in the UCSF Department of Anesthesia and Perioperative Care. After earning his medical degree from the Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine, he completed an anesthesiology residency at the University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Hospital. He joined UCSF in 2020 for a fellowship in Liver Transplant Anesthesia. Dr. Mendez focuses his research on leveraging large datasets to evaluate and improve perioperative outcomes. As an MPOG Fellow, he will investigate practice pattern variations in anesthesia for magnetic resonance imaging, aiming to establish data-driven safety standards for patients undergoing anesthesia in complex non-operating room environments.
Irum Khan, MD, PhD is an Assistant Professor in the UCSF Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Care. She grew up in Nigeria and earned her medical degree from Aga Khan University in Pakistan, followed by a PhD in MRI‑based neuroscience at the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom. She subsequently completed anesthesiology residency training at Hahnemann University Hospital, followed by a Critical Care Medicine fellowship at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. Dr. Khan is board certified in Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine.
At UCSF, Dr. Khan practices as both a general anesthesiologist and critical care physician. Her research focuses on supraglottic airway utilization and its impact on perioperative efficiency and resource use. As an MPOG Fellow, she will evaluate whether supraglottic airway use is associated with improvements in anesthesia phase times and medication utilization, with the goal of informing data‑driven optimization of modern perioperative care.