The first issue of the Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine newsletter, The Monitor, begins a new channel for celebrating the accomplishments and successes of the faculty, residents, fellows, nurses, and support staff. The summer newstand issue, also available in electronic format, highlights the department's broad scope and its achievements in education, clinical care, and research, as well as the impact on Johns Hopkins Medicine. Full Story >>

John Sampson, M.D., Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine, has been invited by President George Bush to visit the White House to participate in a discussion on Volunteerism. The invitiation to visit the White House for the event in September, comes in recognition of Sampson's long history of international medical mission activities. Dr. Sampson is the founder and president of Doctors for United Medical Missions (DrUMM). DrUMM is an organization that provides free healthcare to developing nations around the world, and is comprised of physicians, nurses and healthcare professionals from private and academic institutions located around the country. Full Story >>

One of the many important roles that Dr. Michael Phelps enjoys as an Anesthesiology faculty member is that of welcoming the newest generation of Anesthesia Technicians for their Hopkins rotation. In part, his interest in this mentoring project stems from the fact that before he became a Johns Hopkins faculty member in the Department of Anesthesiology, Phelps began his career in medicine as a critical care technician. Now, as an anesthesiologist at one of the most prestigious academic medical centers in the country, he takes time out of a packed climical schedule to extend a warm welcome to the Anesthesia Technician program students from the Community College of Baltimore County. Full Story >>

The Johns Hopkins Anesthesiology Residency Program has a long tradition of training future health care leaders, and the current crop of residents is right on track. Chief Resident Dr. Matthew Crooks’ work with anesthesia residents now extends far past the walls of Johns Hopkins. In addition to being named one of the Departments’s two new Chief Residents, Crooks was recently honored with an appointment as the Resident Chair Elect of the American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine (ASRA). In this new role he will work with residents from across the country, and in May 2009 he will take over as the new ASRA Resident Chair. Full Story >>

The Pain Division of Anesthesiology recently scored a major pain research "double hit" with the publication of two papers and editorial reviews in the same issue of Anesthesiology. Dr's. Steven Cohen and Robert Hurley's paper, titled "Randomized Placebo-controlled Study Evaluating Lateral Branch Radiofrequency Denervation for Sacroiliac Joint Pain" appears in the August 2008 issue. It was also the subject of an editorial by James P. Rathmell, M.D. titled "The Promise of an Effective Treatment for Sacroiliac-related Low Back Pain." The Cohen/Hurley paper was followed by a second paper by another Johns Hopkins Anesthesiology pain specialist team, Christopher L. Wu, M.D and colleague Shefali Agarwal, M.B.B.S., M.P.H. Full Story >>

Anesthesiologist Jerry Stonemetz is one clinician in the Johns Hopkins Operating Rooms who has discovered first hand that taking the "green" path in healthcare can be a win-win proposal. In the past year, Stonemetz led a project based in the operating rooms whose goal was to separate recyclable trash from medical waste. As a result of these efforts, Hopkins has less medical waste to dispose of cutting down on over a million pounds of waste each year.
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Dr. Meredith Adams is just settling nicely into her year as one of the Department's Chief Residents, but also finds herself in the research spotlight for publishing her first journal article. Collaborating with with Anesthesiology faculty member, Dr. Robert Hurley, she co-authored a paper entitled, "Sex, Gender, and Pain: An Overview of a Complex Field". The paper, which will appear in the July 2008 issue of the journal Anesthesia and Analgesia, explores biomedical research in the field of pain as it relates to differerences in a patient's sex. Full Story >>

Well-equipped operating rooms and Molly the plastic "Sim Baby" are all part of the $5 million dollar state-of-the-art Johns Hopkins Simulation Center where Hopkins trainers test future doctors in lifelike scenarios. Elizabeth “Betsy” Hunt, director of the new Simulation Center and assistant professor in anesthesiology and critical care, knows the critical task for her in the new center is to challenge medical students and residents to take chances. She cites a study that found that elite figure skaters who fall down on the ice more often outperform others because they are more likely to take risks. “They got to be the best because they pushed themselves,” Hunt says. Full Story >>

The new Simulation Center in the Outpatient Center building will be the site of the Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Airway workshops on Monday afternoons from 4-6 p.m. beginning September 8th. The workshop format for anesthesiology residents will consist of a short didactic session followed by stations for difficult airway simulation, and mannequin practice of a variety of airway devices. Full Story >>