Critical Care Medicine has a long and proud history at The Johns Hopkins Hospital. Walter Dandy, M.D. developed the first Intensive Care Unit (ICU) in the world, a postoperative neurosurgical unit, at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in 1928. In 1958, our affiliate, Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center (then named the Baltimore City Hospital) opened the first integrated fully staffed ICU in the country. Today, the Johns Hopkins Hospital operates seven Adult ICUs, a Pediatric ICU, and a Neonatal ICU. Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center has five Adult ICUs and one Pediatric ICU. Many of these units have received both regional and international acclaim for their excellence. Although each unit is structured somewhat differently, all provide a formal educational experience for the individual interested in pursuing a career in critical care.

In the main building of the hospital center, a single floor has a dedicated critical care center having a combined capacity of nearly 100 beds for medical, neurological, pediatric, and surgical patients offers an opportunity for clinical experience unparalleled in the nation. The Weinberg Comprehensive Cancer Center , which is attached to the main building, houses an additional 20 bed ICU, 16 additional operating rooms, and the Oncology ICU. These are coupled with a dedicated research effort in basic cardiac, pulmonary, neurologic and metabolic aspects of intensive care in both the laboratory and patient areas. Equipment reflecting our commitment to these projects includes not only mass spectrometry, echocardiography, nuclear medicine equipment, bronchoscopy, high frequency ventilators and the like, but Departmental laboratories provide for the clinical measurements of everything from serum catecholamines to ionized calcium. A Center for Quality and Safety, which is directed by one our intensivists leads the nation in innovations that are significantly improving how critical care services are provided and the outcomes from critical illness and injury.

Many individuals come to the department with extensive previous training ranging from boards in other specialties to M.D./Ph.D. graduates who leave faculty positions to obtain training in Critical Care Medicine. This Department prides itself both in having the resources and the flexibility to design programs on an individual basis to meet the clinical and research expectations of these unusual and highly qualified men and women.

The Division of Adult Critical Care Medicine offers critical care medicine fellowship programs which meet all certification requirements of the American Board of Anesthesiology and which are accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME). An overriding principle behind these programs is that one does not specialize but "generalizes" in Critical Care Medicine. This multidisciplinary tenet resounds through all levels of these fellowship programs. These programs reflect our cross-disciplinary perspective on and highlight a significant commitment to critical care medicine as an independent subspecialty.