Carla Pugh

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Carla Marie Pugh is an American surgeon who uses sensors and technology to improve medical training and patient care. She was born and raised in Berkeley, California, and built a career focused on how people learn and how to assess clinical skills.

Education and early work
Pugh earned a B.S. in neurobiology from the University of California, Berkeley, then an M.D. from Howard University College of Medicine. She completed her general surgery residency at Howard University. Wanting to study learning and assessment in a structured way, she pursued a Ph.D. in Curriculum Studies and Teacher Education at the Stanford Graduate School of Education. While a student, she created sensor-enabled breast exam models and built the E-Pelvis, an electronic pelvic exam trainer. The E-Pelvis later gained a licensing agreement for wide-scale manufacturing.

Academic career and innovations
Pugh joined Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine as a faculty member, where she led a project to develop a set of breast examination simulators equipped with sensors and to study which palpation techniques best detect cancer. Her work helped define new ways to measure clinical skills and learning. In recognition of her pioneering work, she received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers.

Later, Pugh moved to the University of Wisconsin–Madison as an associate professor and led the Surgery Simulation & Engineering for Surgical Education program, earning the Vilas Faculty Mid-Career Investigator Award. In 2017, she returned to Stanford as a professor of general surgery and director of the Technology Enabled Clinical Improvement Center. She was named a fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering and received the Olga Jonasson Distinguished Member Award in 2019.

Collaborative projects and leadership
Pugh joined a multi-institutional Surgical Metrics Project to collect and analyze data from surgeries using audio, video, wearable sensors, and motion and brain activity measurements. She has continued to influence medical education and digital health through this and related work.

Awards and recognition
In addition to the PECASE award, Pugh has been recognized by her peers with leadership roles and honors, including election to the American Surgical Association and service on the editorial board of the American Educational Research Journal. She was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2021 for her work in sensor technology and the development of performance metrics for clinical exams and digital health care.

Personal life
Carla Pugh married Joseph Towles in 2003.

Summary
Carla Pugh is a trailblazer in using sensors and simulations to improve how doctors learn and how examinations are conducted. Her research has advanced the way medical students and physicians are trained to perform breast and pelvic exams, and her ongoing work continues to shape digital health and medical education.