Department Updates – July 2025
Department of Anesthesiology, Critical Care, and Pain Medicine Updates: July 2025
Events:
The Pediatric Anesthesia Division held a Fellow Recognition Event on May 16, 2025, to honor Drs. Martina Barbic and Jonathan O’Doherty, who are completing their Pediatric Anesthesia Fellowship and Dr. Katarzyna Sledz, who is completing her Pediatric Cardiac Anesthesia Fellowship. The celebration took place in the presence of their families, highlighting the support behind their achievements. Certificates were presented in recognition of their dedication and hard work. It was a meaningful event to recognize and celebrate the fellows’ commitment and accomplishment. The evening was attended by most of the Pediatric Anesthesia Faculty. Guests enjoyed dinner, followed by heartfelt felicitations, and presentation of awards to faculty, fellows, and coordinators.
Conferences:
The Pediatric Anesthesia Division had a very impressive presence at the Congenital Cardiac Anesthesia Society and Society for Pediatric Anesthesia Annual Meeting from March 27th to March 30th, 2025, in Orlando, Florida. Led by Dr. Nischal Gautam, who chaired the congenital cardiac anesthesia’s commemorative 20th annual meeting, several faculty had impactful roles at these meetings, and they are listed below. The division also hosted a booth, ably executed by Ms. Nancy Bonilla, at the meeting to help recruit faculty and fellows.
Dr. N.K. Gautam was Chair of the commemorative 20th Annual Meeting of the Congenital Cardiac Anesthesia Society, held on March 27th, 2025, in Orlando, Florida. A validation of the trust he has earned from colleagues in his specialty from around the world.
Dr. Gautam also moderated the Society for Pediatric Anesthesia- Congenital Cardiac Anesthesia Society Joint Session on Optimizing Non-Cardiac Surgery Outcomes in Congenital Heart Disease Patients.
He participated in the Pediatric Anesthesia Leadership Council Meeting and numerous other committee meetings of the SPA and the CCAS. In addition to the annual meeting, Dr. Gautam, on May 10th, 2025, moderated the CCAS Webinar Series: Electrophysiology Update for the Congenital Cardiac Anesthesiologist: Keeping us all Grounded.
Dr. M. Matuszczak was an invited speaker on “Cost of Effective Difficult Airway Management”. A tough topic to which only a world leader in the pediatric airway could do justice.
Dr. A. Graham-Carlson participated in the Pediatric Anesthesia Leadership Council Meeting.
Dr. Sabina Khan directed the inaugural and enormously successful school outreach program at the SPA Annual Meeting.
Dr. Sabina Khan was also invited faculty at the seminar titled “Priming the Pump: Addressing the Pediatric Anesthesia Fellowship Crisis through Early Recruitment with Effective Advising “.
Dr. Sabina Khan was also invited faculty at a Regional Anesthesia Workshop.
Dr. Sabina Khan is an elected member of the board of directors of PAPDA (Pediatric Anesthesia Fellowship Program Directors Association) and moderated their meetings.
Dr. Sabina Khan was a lead participant in several activities of SPAERS which works to recruit pediatric anesthesia fellows.
Dr. Staci Cameron was invited faculty on a one-lung ventilation workshop for pediatric patients.
Dr. Meera Gangadharan was an invited speaker on pediatric damage control resuscitation co-director of the SPA inaugural outreach program, co-director of seminar on mass casualty preparation, moderator for posters, presented a poster and mentored a medical student and anesthesia resident for a case report. Dr. Gangadharan’s mentee, Andrew Porter received a scholarship from the Society for Pediatric Anesthesia to present at the meeting.
Dr. Zoha Khan, Anesthesiology Resident – CA-2, presented a poster on Caroli’s Syndome. Dr. Khan mentored Andrew Porter for this presentation.
Dr. Martina Barbic, Anesthesiology Fellow, presented a poster.
Dr. Katarzyna E. Dlugosz Sledz, Anesthesiology Fellow, presented a poster.
Andrew Porter, MS-3, was recipient of a travel scholarship to attend the meeting and the meeting and presented a poster on a rare disorder – Caroli’s Syndrome.
Awards:
We are pleased to announce that Dr. Mi Jeong Heo is the recipient of 2025 PILOT AWARD from the TMC Digestive Diseases Center (DDC). She is mentored by Dr. Kangho Kim in our department.
TMC DDC provides support to pilot and feasibility projects in the areas of GI-related research such as liver diseases and gastrointestinal diseases, which promotes collaborative projects between basic and clinical studies to develop new lines of research, particularly for young investigators.
Dr. Heo’s research is titled “Kynurenine Pathway Mechanism in Cholestatic Liver Injury”. This project aims to investigate the role of the kynurenine pathway (KP) in cellular crosstalk—particularly between hepatocytes and immune cells—in regulating tissue inflammation during cholestatic liver injury. Her ultimate career goal is to become an independent investigator at an academic institution, discovering novel cellular and interorgan crosstalk mechanisms in liver pathophysiology and developing therapeutic strategies for treating chronic liver diseases.
Recent Publications:
Dr. Grant Chen published a textbook titled: “Cancer Pain Procedural Techniques” along with Drs. Amitabh Gulati, Neal Rakesh, Storm Horine, Ali Valimahomed, and Ehtesham Baig.
Drs. Potnuru, Orlando, and Nwokolo were featured in an article in “Anesthesia and Analgesia” titled: “Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Epidural Blood Patch Utilization Among Obstetric Patients in the United States: A Nationwide Analysis, 2016-2020” and were accompanied by a podcast with the editor. Click the links to view article and podcast: Anesthesia & Analgesia and Article of the Month – Decembe… – OpenAnesthesia Multimedia – Apple Podcasts
Drs. Potnuru, Jefferies, Liang, Lei, and Paula Igwe (medical student) were published in Pregnancy Hypertension for their article titled: “Maternal pulmonary hypertension and cardiopulmonary outcomes during delivery hospitalization in the United States: A nationwide study from 2016-2020.” Click the link to view article: Maternal pulmonary hypertension and cardiopulmonary outcomes during delivery hospitalization in the United States: A nationwide study from 2016-2020 – PubMed
Dr. Vy Tran was published in Journal of Cardiothoracic and Vascular Anesthesiology for her article entitled “Thrombotic Complications Associated with Right Atrial Lines in Neonates and Infants Undergoing Cardiac Surgery. Is Calcium Chloride the Culprit?” Click the link to view article: Thrombotic Complications Associated With Right Atrial Lines in Neonates and Infants Undergoing Cardiac Surgery. Is Calcium Chloride a Culprit? – ScienceDirect