Department Updates – April 2022

On Tuesday April 5, 2022, the Center for Perioperative Medicine (CPM) hosted its annual National Institutes of Health (NIH) Style Mock Study Section.  A major goal of the CPM is research training for physician-scientists and PhD scientists and a critical tenant of this training is writing and submitting grants to obtain extramural funding. The Mock Study Section review, which consisted of three R01 applications and one R03 application, provided attendees with an extremely realistic impression of the NIH grant review process. The Mock Study Section sought to demystify the review process for Center members who have not served on study section as well as provide constructive feedback for CPM members whose applications were discussed by the panel. A special thanks to Scientific Review Officers, Drs. Jennifer Bailey-Lundberg and Tae Jin Lee, to our Chair, Dr. Harry Karmouty-Quintana, and to Dr. Kristin Eckel-Mahan for joining us and giving very insightful reviews.  Panel reviewers consisted of Drs. Wei Cao, Cynthia Ju, Xiaoyi Yuan, Kyle Poulsen, Kangho Kim, Aaron An and Jennifer Bailey-Lundberg (ad hoc reviewer).

On Tuesday March 29, 2022, The Center for Perioperative Medicine (CPM) hosted its first in-person seminar for 2022.  Dr. Philipp Scherer was the distinguished guest that gave his lecture entitled “The Endocrine Actions of the Adipocyte: Impact on Metabolism, Infectious Disease and Cancer.”

A Houston-area baby came into the Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital with a life threatening brain injury on October 27, 2021.  The infant, Walker Hicks, went into cardiac arrest during his emergency neurosurgery.  For 43 minutes, the anesthesiologists in the room took shifts performing chest compressions to keep Walker alive while Dr. Stephen Fletcher removed a fist-sized portion of the baby’s skull.  Walker required extensive life support after his surgery and his doctors did not think he would make it through the night.

Miraculously, Walker is recovering through extensive rehab and physical therapy at TIRR.  On Friday March 25, 2022, Dr. Amy Graham-Carlson got to come full circle and bring baby Walker back into the OR for his surgery to replace the piece of skull that was removed back in October.  It took two hours for Walker’s team of doctors to reattach his skull, and he was able to return home two days later.  While much of Walker’s future remains unknown, he is catching up in his development every day.

We are so thankful for the dedication, care, compassion, and hard work that was put forward for Walker and his family by all of those involved on his care team.

More of this story can be found here.

OB Anesthesia will be representing the upcoming Society for Obstetric Anesthesia and Perinatology (SOAP) meeting in May 2022 with 10 accepted posters.  Some faculty, both fellows and the residents will all be presenting their posters and case reports.  The faculty include Drs. Linden Lee, Alice O’Brien, Barbara Orlando, Ana-Lisa Ramirez-Chapman, Mitesh Thakkar and Danielle White.  The two fellows, Drs. Kendra Brown and Jennifer Hoayek will both respectfully be presenting a total of seven posters.  The residents, Drs. Roy Lei, Neva Lemoine, and Emily Niewiarovsky will be presenting posters that are case reports which reflect largely the high acuity patients we have on our Labor and Delivery Floor.  Dr. O’Brien will also be a session moderator and is on the SOAP digital media team.  The Center Of Excellence Award will be given out during the SOAP ceremony with the effort led by Dr. Maya Suresh.

Thanks to our fellowship trained division, we are able to offer very elaborate anesthesia management to patients with either, very rare conditions or advanced co-morbidities that put them at high risk of morbidity/mortality in the peri-partum period.

We have also been able to utilize new innovative techniques, allowing us to tailor our care even better.

Dr. Wei Cao has been appointed the holder of the Roy M. and Phyllis Gough Huffington Distinguished Professorship effective February 16, 2022.

Drs. Holger Eltzschig and Omonele Nwokolo were published in the February edition of 2022 in Anesthesia & Analgesia. Their article is entitled “Diversity and Inclusion in Anesthesiology“.

Dr. Travis Markham’s article “The Burnout Generation” was published in the ASA Monitor in December 2021.

Dr. Barbara Orlando’s article “Evaluation of the Safety of the Epidural Needle Loading Technique (ENLT) for Initiation of Labor Analgesia with Low-Dose Local Anesthetic Prior to Epidural Catheter Placement” was published in the International Journal of Obstetric Anesthesia. The article can be found here.

Dr. Omonele Nwokolo was featured on the March 2022 podcast of Healthcare Professionalism entitled Education, Research & Resources. A link to the podcast can be found here.

Our Residency Program Director, Dr. Travis Markham, along with three of our residents, Drs. Joseph Liao, Roy Lei, and Sean Senozan, were featured in the March 2022 edition of the ASA Monitor.  The article entitled “Vocal Leaders in the OR: Saving Lives in Trauma Anesthesiology” can be found here.

Dr. Nadia Hernandez became a Fellow of the American Society of Anesthesiologists (FASA) in March 2022.

Drs. Srikanth Sridhar and Rishi Kumar have been nominated for the 2022 Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center’s Physician of the Year Award.

The Texas Society of Anesthesiologists (TSA) nominated Drs. Davide Cattano and Rashedah Ekeoduru as Alternate Delegates for the 2022 TSA House of Delegates.

The Harris County Medical Society (HCMS) elected Drs. Stacy Norrell for the delegate position of Chair, and Dr. George Williams for the delegate position of Secretary for 2022.

Dr. Nischal Gautam won best poster for the Congenital Cardiac Anesthesia Society (CCAS) 2022 Annual Meeting.  His abstract is entitled: Fibrinogen Levels (FLEV) Estimated By The Newer Generation Thromboelastography (TEG6s) Can Be Used To Predict Lab Fibrinogen Levels Before Cardiopulmonary In Infants And Children Undergoing Cardiac Surgery.

Drs. Rashedah Ekeoduru and Srikanth Sridhar received a special thanks from the 2021 annual meeting of the American Society of Anesthesiologists for their presence and assistance.

 

Dr. George Williams spoke with KHOU about the tragic Astroworld Festival in December 2021.

He was also selected as a Champion of the Quarter through the Harris Health System in November 2021.

The Texas Society of Anesthesiologists Resident Council elected two of our residents, Dr. Katharine Heffner to the position of Chair, and Dr. Jason Pang to the position of Vice Chair.

The Resident International Anesthesia Scholarship Program of the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA’s) Committee on Global Humanitarian Outreach (GHO) announced its 2022-2023 scholarship winners.  Dr. Asal Naderi was one of four winners selected nationwide.  Congratulations Dr. Naderi!  More information about the program and this year’s winners can be found here.

Dr. Joseph Liao was featured in the November 2011 Clinical Anesthesiology Journal.

Drs. Pivalizza, Heffner, Karnes, and Glenesk at the Texas Society of Anesthesiologists (TSA) Days at the capital in Austin, TX.

On February 25, 2022, we celebrated National Thank A Resident Day. We thank you for hard work and commitment to excellent patient care, dedication to scholarly activities, and willingness to learn and grow as physicians in training. Please see this message of our thanks.

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