Barbara Brandom, MD
Children’s Hospital

Barbara will give the ASA refresher course lecture on Malignant Hyperthermia at the Annual Meeting of the American Society of Anesthesiology to be held in October 2003 in San Francisco.

Doris Cope, MD
Pain Medicine

Has been named in the Best Doctors in America 2003, the only pain physician in the Pittsburgh area to be so honored. She was appointed to another term on the ASA Pain Medicine Committee, and is the new president of the Anesthesia History Association. Miriam Anixter (resident) will be presenting a historical essay at the AHA spring annual meeting in Boston May 1st.

Miro Klain, MD, Ph.D
UPMC Presbyterian

Miro presented a talk entitled: ‘Cerebral resuscitation and CPR’ at the Mt. Sinai Cardiac Anesthesia meeting held in Antigua, West Indies.

José Marquez, MD
UPMC Presbyterian

Jose was part of a panel on ‘Off-pump Bypass Surgery’ held at the Mt. Sinai Cardiac Anesthesia meeting in Antigua, West Indies the week of January 20th.

Isuta Nishio, MD
Pain Fellow

Has had a paper accepted for publication in Anesthesia and Analgesia, and now in press, entitled: Epidural labor analgesia for a patient with disseminated lymphangiomatosis: Case report and review of the literature. Isuta Nishio, Gordon L. Mandell, Sivam Ramanathan Jules H. Sumkin

Vik Patel, MD
Children’s Hospital

Has had an abstract accepted as a Poster presentation at the Society of Pediatric anesthesia: 2003 in Fort Myers, Fl: Peri-operative management of Bi VAD management in Pediatric Patients: Dr. Vikram Patel, Dr. S. Gandhi, Dr. F. Pigula, Dr. P. Davis, Dr. A. Casta

Ray Planinsic, MD
UPMC Presbyterian

Ray has been invited to speak on “The Future of Coagulation Monitoring and Therapy at the 77th International Anesthesia Research Society Congress to be held in New Orleans in March 2003. Abstract presentations by members of the HTA group include: HTK vs. UW Preservative Solution: Hemodynamic and Metabolic Changes during Orthotopic Liver Transplantation. Aggarwal S, Nicolau RR, Planinsic R, Hilmi I, Soaita A, Eghtesad B. Members of the HTA group also participated actively at the International Liver Transplantation Society Meeting 2002 in Orlando, Florida in October 2002.

Harish Ramakrishna, MD
UPMC Presbyterian

In 2002 Harish successfully ran and completed three national marathons in Pittsburgh, Chicago and Kiawah Island, South Carolina, with a best time of 3:36 min (Chicago). He won age group prizes in the UPMC St Margaret’s 5k race and the McCandless 10 k race (2nd place in both). Overall he has run 2,310 miles over the last 2 years, a distance that spans the breadth of the continental US.

Sivam Ramanathan, MD
Magee Women’s Hospital

Ram has developed a web based orientation package for residents starting obstetric anesthesia. This is a multimedia package containing videos, a written test, drug recipes, and an electronic textbook on the subject of obstetric anesthesia. This web site will replace the bound paper volume we give out to our residents. www.ramanathans.com

Pei Tang, Ph.D
Assistant Professor
Anesthesiology Research, Biomedical Science Tower

Secured one spot each in the very few slots for oral presentation and poster discussion in this year's AUA meeting. The two abstracts from Dr. Tang’s group are:
Oral presentation: Pei Tang, Victor Yushmanov, Yan Xu (Spon: Peter Winter): Structure and dynamics of second transmembrane domain of nAChR beta2 subunit.

Poster Discussion: L Wang, J Li, B Wang, LQ Zhou, X Xiao, Y Xu: Extensive Delivery of LacZ Reporter Gene and Expression of beta-Galactosidase in Adult Mouse Brain by
Serotype-5 Recombinant Adeno-Associated Viral Vector.

Brian Williams, MD, MBA
Southside Hospital

Brian’s research team continues to enroll for their 5-year project, entitled, “Outcomes after ACL Reconstruction: the Effect of Femoral Nerve Block Analgesia. The preliminary data has led to abstract publications in Anesthesia and Analgesia.
Coming this April, Brian has been invited to present a workshop, with Patrick McQuillan, MD, at the 2003 Annual Meeting of the American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine, entitled, “ Accelerated Postoperative Recovery Programs: Clinical Pathways for Major Joint Surgery.” He has also been invited to present a program for the general session, entitled, “ Regional Anesthesia and OR Management – OR Cost and Efficiency.”