Anesthesiology: Is There a Future?

Dr. John Williams is the Peter and Eva Safar Professor of Anesthesiology and chair of the Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine. He was named to that post in 2002.

Dr. Williams has dedicated his career to education and research with a clinical emphasis on cardiac illness and cardiac surgery in specific. He has previously served as the chief at Presbyterian Hospital from 1999 to 2001 and as interim chair from 2001 to 2002. He has also served as the director of cardiac anesthesiology and co-director of intensive care at UCLA, and spent his formative years in the laboratory of Dr. Glenn Laine (UT Houston) investigating and defining the role of cardiaclymphatic vessels in a variety of physiologic states.

Dr. Williams was instrumental in the creation of the Department of Critical Care Medicine (formerly a division of the Department of Anesthesiology) and has since turned his attention to the development of a clinical and research basis for the understanding and treatment of pain and pain-related states. This has involved the creation of the new Pittsburgh Comprehensive Pain Center, in collaboration with the Division of GI Medicine, Department of Medicine, and the Department of Neurobiology. This center is now run by world-renowned investigator Dr. Gerald Gebhart and is partnered with a translational component in the Molecular Epidemiology of Pain Program that was headed by Dr. Mitchell Max until his untimely death.

Dr. Williams has further developmental plans for pain medicine and pain research at the University of Pittsburgh, which will be discussed at this lecture.

About This Session

Anesthesiology has always found itself at the nexus between pain medicine and acute care medicine.

The primary direction of the Department of Anesthesiology for the last 30 years focused on the development of the acute care side and resulted in the formation of a new Department in Critical Care Medicine. However, other departments (most notably Seattle) focused on the pain relief portion of the nexus but unfortunately did not manage to initiate adequate basic science support to actually push the frontiers of the specialty.

This lecture will describe the basis for changing the current direction in anesthesiology to one in pain medicine and the requisite steps necessary to create the infrastructure that can support both the clinical and research components.

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Continuing Medical Education

The University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine is accredited by the ACCME to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

The University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine designates this educational activity for a maximum of 1.0 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™. Physicians should only claim credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

Other health care professionals are awarded 0.10 continuing education units (CEUs) which are equal to 1.0 contact hours.

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Medical Education Grand Rounds brings key issues in health professions education to the University community. All Medical Education Grand Rounds presentations are free and open to University of Pittsburgh students, staff, and faculty.

Contact

Office of the Vice Dean
M240 Scaife Hall
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412-648-9000
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