UVa Anesthesiology Department - Present
Overall, the faculty is of a size and quality that present opportunities for training unmatched anywhere. The Department is large enough to provide great expertise in all specialties but not so large that the individual is lost. All of the faculty know and work with all of the residents. The fact that all clinical work is done at the University of Virginia Hospital also contributes to our cohesion and esprit de corps. The faculty is notable for great friendliness and accessibility. We take great pride in treating our residents in a humane and considerate way. The residents find that great trust and affection is established with the faculty during their time at Virginia. All the residents who finished our program this year have found excellent positions, reflecting the reputation of the Department on a national level and the efforts of the faculty to help residents.
In the midst of rapid changes in the specialty and in the practice of medicine in general, our hospital continues to thrive. The University of Virginia Hospital has adapted to the managed care environment and continues to maintain the steady and diverse caseload that is the basis of any top-rated anesthesiology residency. Our clinical volumes continue to grow and provide great diversity of training opportunity.
George F. Rich, M.D., Ph.D. Harrison Medical Teaching Professor, is the Chair of the Department. He received his M.D. and Ph.D. in bioengineering from the University of Utah. He subsequently trained in San Diego and completed his anesthesia residency at the University of Arizona. He has been a member of the faculty at UVA since 1989 and has served as Vice Chair and Program Director. He has been active in cardiovascular research, investigating nitrate oxide signaling with special emphasis on the pulmonary vasculature and the effect of volatile anesthetic agents on ischemic injury to endothelial and smooth muscle cells. Clinically, he is active in cardiac and thoracic anesthesia.
Carl Lynch III, M.D., Ph.D., Robert M. Epstein Professor was Chair of the Department from 1999 to 2005. He is a nationally respected expert in electrophysiology and cell signaling, with an emphasis on actions of anesthetics on ion channels, both in myocardium and the nervous system. His research emphasizes the role of Ca-mediated activation in neurons and muscle cells and its modulation by anesthetics. In addition, he is an active clinical anesthesiologist, with a special interest in anesthesia for cardiac surgery. He was an editor of Anesthesiology for nine years as well as one of the co-editors of Anesthesia: Biologic Foundations.
John Rowlingson, M.D., Cosmo A. DiFazio Professor trained in pain management with Dr. Harold Carron. Dr. Rowlingson is currently Director of Acute Pain Management, Director of the Pain Management Fellowship, and is an editor of Anesthesia & Analgesia, and Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine. He is certified in Pain Management and was chosen to help write the initial examination for the Certificate of Advanced Qualification in Pain.
William Arnold III, M.D., who as a fellow worked with Nobel laureate Ferid Murad in describing the physiologic role of nitric oxide and cyclic GMP signaling, is a recognized authority on environmental hazards in anesthesia, particularly those related to stress-related drug abuse among physicians. He presently serves as one of Virginia's delegates to the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA), having previously served as president of the VSA.
Charles Durbin, M.D., came to UVa in 1978, following his residency at the University of Pennsylvania. He currently holds appointments in Anesthesiology and Surgery and serves as President of the Society for Critical Care Medicine, representing UVa on an international basis.
Karen Schwenzer, M.D. trained in critical care medicine at the University of Virginia, and her clinical practice involves both the OR and ICU. After serving on the Institutional Ethics Committee and Institutional Review Board Health Sciences Research (IRB HSR), she was recently chosen to Chair the IRB HSR.
David Bogdonoff, M.D. , who is board certified in both anesthesiology and surgery, developed our program in anesthesia for liver transplantation. He is Clinical Director of the Operating Rooms and Vice Chair for Clinical Affairs. He received the 1995 Dean's Award for Clinical Excellence, awarded by the School of Medicine.
Robin Hamill-Ruth, M.D. has unique training in both pain management and critical care. She is the Director of the Pain Management Center.
J. Michael (Mick) Jaeger, M.D., Ph.D., a departmental teaching award winner, trained at the University of Florida. Dr. Jaeger received the Dean's Award fro Clinical Excellence in 2001. He is Director of Thoracic Anesthesia and has an ongoing interest in wilderness and hyperbaric medicine.
Victor Baum, M.D. is another uniquely talented and trained individual who is a board-certified pediatric cardiologist and pediatric intensivist. He is Chief of Cardiac Anesthesia, Associate Editor of Survey of Anesthesiology, and on the Editorial Board of Seminars in Cardiothoracic and Vascular Anesthesia and the Journal of Cardiothoracic and Vascular Anesthesiology.
Thomas Pajewski, Ph.D., M.D. is a Rice University-trained Ph.D. biochemist who studies interactions of anesthetics with the nitric oxide signaling pathway in the central nervous system. Dr. Pajewski is Director of Neuroanesthesia.
After serving on the faculty from 1990 to1996,Terrance Yemen, M.D. spent two years as Chief of Anesthesia at the Montreal Children's Hospital. He returned to the Department in 1998 and is now the Director of Pediatric Anesthesia and serves as Medical Director of the UVA Outpatient Surgery Center.
Barbara Castro, M.D. is a pediatrician and anesthesiologist who completed a fellowship in pediatric anesthesia at Northwestern University Children's Memorial Hospital of Chicago. She joined the Department from the faculty at the Harvard affiliated Massachusetts Eye and Ear Hospital.
George Politis, M.D., who is also board certified in pediatrics and anesthesiology, joined our faculty in August 2001. Dr. Politis completed his pediatric residency at Oakland Children's Hospital, his anesthesiology residency at the University of Virginia, and a pediatric anesthesiology fellowship at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Dr. Politis also received his MPH from Berkeley.
Doug Willson, M.D. is the director of the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit.
Stuart Lowson, MBBS first came to UVA as a visiting clinician from the U.K. and chose to immigrate and remain on the faculty. He is a cardiac anesthetist and is Co-Director of the Surgical Intensive Care Unit.
We were fortunate to attract Keith Littlewood, M.D. to our faculty in 1999 from the Medical College of Virginia, where he had been named best teacher for several years. He, along with Drs. Nemergut and Bogdonoff are members of the liver transplant team.
J. Lee White, M.D. and Philip Balestrieri, M.D. joined the faculty in 2000 after being members of the Georgetown faculty for many years. Both provide valuable experience in the area of obstetrical anesthesia. Dr. Balestrieri, like Dr. Schwenzer, have a long-standing interest in medical ethics and is Chief of OB Anesthesia.
Paul Ting, M.D. completed his residency at the University of Miami and has an interest in applying computer technology to the operating room, he jointed our faculty in 2000.
Edward Nemergut, M.D. is an Assistant Professor who joined our faculty in July, 2002 after completing his residency in our Department. He has joined the neuroanesthesia and liver transplant teams.
Marcel Durieux, M.D., Ph.D. is an Associate Editor of Anesthesia and Analgesia with a research interest in cell signalling and local anesthestic-induced cell protection. He trained at UVA and was an NIH-funded investigator before serving as Chair at the University of Maastricht (in his native Netherlands) from 2000 to 2003. He returned to UVA in 2003 and is presently directing a variety of clinical studies. He is part of the neruroanesthesia team.
Geir Elgjo, M.D., Ph.D., Danja Groves, M.D., Ph.D., Robert Goldstein, M.D., and Sheryl Johnson, M.D. joined our faculty in 2004. After completing his anesthesia residency, Dr. Elgjo completed a cardiac fellowship at Texas Heart Institute and is a member of the cardiac team. Originally trained in Norway, Dr. Elgjo obtained his Ph.D. following a Fulbright scholarship at the University of Texas, Galveston. Dr. Groves obtained her M.D. and Ph.D. degrees in Münster, Germany, and serves on our cardiac team. Dr. Goldstein joins the faculty after years in private practice and brings expertise in acute and chronic pain. Dr. Johnson is board certified in Psychiatry.
Lynda Wells, MBBS joined our faculty in early 2005. Originally trained in the United Kingdom, she served as a pediatric anesthesiologist and acute pain physician at UT San Antonio before coming to UVA.
In July 2005, Ashley Shilling, M.D. joined our Department after completing her residency at UVA. She specializes in regional anesthesia. Other new faculty members include Jacob Raphael, M.D., Duncan de Souza, M.D., and Mohamed Tiouririne, M.D. .
Dr. Raphael trained at the Hebrew University and adds expertise in cardiovascular research and cardiac anesthesia. Dr. de Souza completed an anesthesia residency at the Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Heart Institute followed by a pediatric fellowship at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. He adds expertise in the areas of cardiac, pediatric, and pediatric cardiac anesthesia. Dr. Tiouririne completed an anesthesiology residency and fellowship in Obstetric Anesthesiology at the University of Texas, San Antonio.
In 2006, we welcome three new faculty members. Catherine Burton, M.D., completed the resident program at UVa and joined our faculty as a generalist. Heidi Henson, M.D., completed a fellowship in regional anesthesiology at Dartmouth and joins our regional team. Lori Conklin, M.D., has completed her residency in Anesthesiology and a research fellowship in Cardiothoracic Surgery at Baylor College of Medicine.
Nine faculty members (Drs. Lynch, Rich, Pajewski, Jaeger, Zuo, Todorovic, Jevtovic-Todorovic, Durieux, and Groves) have Ph.D.'s in basic science areas in addition to being M.D. anesthesiologists. These individudals exemplify the Department's commitment to basic science and academic anesthesiology. All of these physicians also participate in the clinical teaching program and are respected clinicians as well as clinical scientists. They maintain close ties to the basic science departments and are also involved in teaching medical and graduate students in physiology, pharmacology, and biomedical engineering. In addition to these physicians, a number of Ph.D. scientists are also involved in departmental research as postdoctoral fellows, as are several graduate students and a variety of visiting foreign scientists.
Zhiyi Zuo, M.D. Ph.D. received a Ph.D. in physiology and pharmacology at the University of Cambridge prior to his anesthesia training at the University of Virginia. His research interests involve anesthetic mechanisms and glutamate signaling, and he was recently awarded his second NIH RO1 grant to explore mechanisms of neuronal protection.
Slobodan Todorovic, M.D., Ph.D. and Vesna Jevtovic-Todorovic, M.D., Ph.D. joined our faculty in 2001 from Washington University where they both completed their residency and subsequently joined the faculty. Both received their Ph.D.s in Pharmacology at the University of Illinois College of Medicine. Dr. Jevtovic-Todorovic's research interests include the neurotoxicity of various anesthetics on the developing brain. Dr. Todorovic's research revolves around the pharmacology of T-type calcium ion channels and their role in pain pathways. Dr. Jevtovic-Todorovic's and Dr. Todorovic's each has two NIH R01 grants funding their research efforts.
In addition to our physician researchers, there are four Ph.D. researchers in our department. Julie Sando, Ph.D. received her Ph.D. in Pharmacology from the University of Michigan and is working on the structure and activation of protein kinase C. Ganesan Kamatchi, Ph.D., initially worked closely with Dr. Lynch and has now established his own laboratory, supported by NIH funding. Manoj Patel, Ph.D. trained in the United Kingdom and has established a laboratory to explore mechanisms of neuropathic pain.
Also associated with the department are Doug Bayliss, Ph.D., and Lisa Palmer, Ph.D.. Dr. Bayliss is Associate Professor of Pharmacology with a number of NIH-funded projects exploring neuronal functions responsible for movement and consciousness. He has recently described specific potassium channels that are activated by volatile anesthestics, resulting in decreased neuronal excitability.Dr. Palmer, an Associate Professor of Pediatrics, has NIH funding to explore the regulation of the transcription factor hypoxia inducible factor-1 (HIF-1) by nitric oxide. She is currently examining the mechanisms by which NO induces the expression of HIF-1 and the role of NO-induced HIF-1 in the development of pulmonary hypertension.
The Division of Pain Psychology includes Dania Chastain, Ph.D., whose area of clinical research interests include the establishment of a comprehensive database for patients with chronic pain, therapeutic outcome studies, drug trials, reflex sympathetic dystrophy (RSD), epidural steroids, and neuropathic pain.