Medical School Creates Critical Care Department

The new department will focus on training intensivists, doctors who specialize in the management of critically ill patients requiring care in an intensive care unit.

The new department's research agenda includes genetic studies of patients with sepsis, studies of the molecular mechanisms responsible for neurologic impairment following pediatric head trauma, and the development of new drugs to treat serious illnesses such as acute respiratory distress syndrome. The creation of the department is the direct result of the widely reported US need for critical care medicine specialists, caused by the nation's aging population. A study lead by Derek Angus, M.D., a University of Pittsburgh researcher, predicts that the demand for care will outpace the supply of intensivists by the year 2010.

"Recent studies have shown that critically ill patients substantially benefit from being treated by intensivists, reinforcing the fact that there is a great need for critical care specialists,” said Arthur Levine, M.D., dean, School of Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh. "We are pleased and excited to be the first medical school to make an active commitment to training the intensivists of tomorrow.”




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