For his groundbreaking work in the area of patient safety, Hopkins anesthesiologist Dr. Peter Pronovost has been named by the editors of Time Magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world for 2008. Time's annual list of the world's most influential people includes categories for leaders, revolutionaries, thinkers, heroes, pioneers, artists, entertainers, builders, titans and scientists. Dr. Peter Pronovost is currently leading several large national and international safety projects. His innovative work to improve patient safety and care which began in the Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine provided the needed momentum for the global medical community to begin to make important changes in how they approach their daily work.

Dr. Peter Pronovost was recently profiled in The New Yorker article "The Checklist: If Something So Simple Can Transform Intensive Care, What Else Can It Do?". Peter Pronovost’s checklist illustrates how the world's health care community can reduce infections in complex environments like the intensive care unit with steps as simple as a checklist.
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 May 19. 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 >>

On April 5, the operating rooms at Johns Hopkins were the site of what is believed to be the first six-way donor kidney swap among 12 individuals. A Hopkins team led by surgeon Robert Montgomery, chief of the Transplant Division at the Johns Hopkins Hospital and members of the Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine Department made this complex series of transplants possible. Full Story >>

According to a study published in the December issue of Anesthesiology, treating soldiers’ pain in the field instead of being sent elsewhere for therapy is good for their comfort and better for rebuilding troop strength.

Study co-author Colonel Steven Cohen, M.D., of the Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, says that “Establishing pain treatment centers in combat areas gets care to soldiers fast and could dramatically increase the military’s ability to maintain troop levels and succeed militarily in places like Iraq...”
Full Story >>

Appointing a president is the legal responsibility of the Board of Trustees, and it is the most important of all of the board's fiduciary responsibilities. However, because Hopkins is an academic community, and because the perspectives of the entire community are highly relevant to its deliberations, the newly formed Presidential Search Committee includes trustees, two faculty members, a graduate student, an undergraduate student, and a staff member. The undergraduate student selected to represent his peers is Kurt Herzer, a junior at Johns Hopkins University. Kurt has been working in the Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine with Dr. Lynette Mark for several years on a number of Perioperative Safety initiatives centered in the Weinberg Operating Rooms. Full Story >>