“Sociobehavioral risk shapes who recovers after surgery, yet it rarely shows up in the models, budgets, and care pathways that health systems run on. I joined the SASSY Lab as a student at the Yale School of Public Health, training in epidemiology, modeling, and data science, and wanted to help close that gap with rigorous evidence. Working alongside surgeons as one of the lab’s non-clinicians, I was able to publish on questions at the intersection of surgical outcomes, health care operations, and economics, and to see firsthand how that evidence moves into practice.”