Faculty Mentors
Many of our faculty are interested in working with residents to develop their research interests and projects. Residents have an opportunity to study throughout their residency training with the Bonica Scholars Program or in the Residency Research Track for 6 months during the CA3 year.
Please consult with your advisor and/or program directors for further guidance.
- Dr. Bowdle, Dr. Michaelsen, and Dr. Jelacic are members of GaviaLabs which conducts research with emphasis on the application of computerization, technology, and novel medical devices for the improvement of anesthesia patient safety. GaviaLabs interests include development of integrated centralized anesthesia alarm system based on aviation alarm system principles, safety applications of computer vision and artificial intelligence, neuromuscular blockade monitoring, computerization of perioperative checklists, drug administration safety, central venous catheterization safety, simulation training, and anesthesia infection control measures.
- PPIQSO is a technical center focused on improving perioperative and pain quality of care, patient safety and outcome applying informatics and technology solutions. The Center includes engineering and clinical anesthesiology faculty as well as database and software programmers.
- Opportunities: Literature review, statistical analysis, manuscript preparation opportunities
Vikas O’Reilly-Shah, MD, PhD, Director
- Quality improvement and outcomes
- (1) Understanding the mechanism of action of volatile anesthetics, using a mouse model of mitochondrial dysfunction (2) Investigating the pathways that control anesthetic induced neurotoxicity in early development
(1) What is the emotional experience of emergence from general anesthesia?
(2) How does the experience of stress, or pain, modify emergence and social behavior?
(3) What is the neurobiology of stress and delirium across the lifespan?
Importantly, how can we apply our preclinical knowledge to improving clinical outcomes?
- Evaluating the incidence of hypophosphatemia and its effect on serum lactate in surgery on cardiopulmonary bypass
- (1) Chronic pain disorders (2) Mechanisms of pain (3) Molecular profiling
- (1) The intersection of pain and addiction, (2) The use of Buprenorphine for acute and chronic pain, (3) Interactive online didactics to promote interinstitutional collaboration and learning
- Ongoing studies & clinical studies; older adults and osteoarthritis; please inquire
- (1) Case Report and Review; (2) Clinical outcomes research
- (1) Pediatric chronic pain; (2) psychosocial intervention; (3) interrelationship of sleep and pain [multiple ongoing studies and clinical trials – please inquire]
- Pain and sleep: case report & review; clinical outcomes research
- My current research focuses on medical financial hardship and its role as a potential mediator of key patient- and family-centered outcomes for seriously ill patients and families. I specifically focus on patients who have experienced critical illness and their primary family caregivers. I am currently running a large longitudinal cohort study and using both survey-based and qualitative methods for data collection. Smaller subprojects are available using prior study data and data from this ongoing study. I also utilize local datasets (UW Medical Center & Harborview Medical Center) evaluating palliative care metrics and hospital utilization in seriously ill patients.
- Studies involving SAH, TBI, neuromonitoring, hemodynamic support, neuroanesthesia and neurocritical care outcomes.
(1) Motivational Interviewing for Pain Medicine trainees
- (1) The effect of anesthetics on insulin like Growth factor-1 mediated wound healing in the aged, (2) Clinical and radiological frailty assessment to direct interventions and determine outcomes in the aged
- (1) Disparities in perioperative care with a focus on transitions of care between hospital and community settings using culturally and linguistically relevant interventions. Studies include evaluation of barriers to surgical follow-up among diverse pediatric populations and transitions of care after traumatic brain injury among Hispanic/Latino and immigrant populations.
- (1) Anesthesia informed consent and parental understanding, (2) QI project on truth-telling: when parents request we withhold information from their children about surgery, (3) Analyzing racial/ethnic disparities in delivery of anesthesia care, in collaboration with Vikas O’Reilly-Shah and Nathalia Jimenez, (4) Developing and assessing the impact of EDI curriculum for residents and faculty
- My lab searches for genes controlling the survival of cells after hypoxic injury. We aim to contribute to a fundamental understanding of hypoxic injury and to define novel therapeutic avenues for stroke, cancer, and myocardial infarction. Our primary experimental model is the nematode C. elegans, a widely used genetically tractable model organism. Available projects are: (1) Defining the role of mTOR signaling in hypoxic injury, ageing, and development (multiple projects in this area); (2) Mitochondrial stress granules: Nature, formation, and role in hypoxic death/adaptation; (3) Testing the role of proteins whose expression levels are altered by hypoxia protective genetic mutations.
- (1) Our lab focuses on metabolomics, the study of metabolism using advanced analytical methods. We are interested in a variety of areas related to anesthesia – hypoxia: brain or peripheral, anesthetic: more broadly drug response, cardiac function as measured through metabolism, mitochondrial status and response, etc.
- (1) Study the effects of inhalational anesthetics on donor liver mitochondrial function and the outcome of transplant, (2) Mitochondrial function of the peripheral blood mononucleated cells (PBMC) as a determinant of inflammatory response
- (1) Investigating the link between metabolic stress, redox imbalance, and hyper-active mitochondrial dynamics in metabolic heart disease, (2) Elucidating the new regulatory mechanisms for energy metabolism in the heart and provide new targets for treating heart failure, (3) Determination of mitochondrial calcium regulation in the diseased heart and how it contributes to the development of heart hypertrophy and failure.
- (1) Acute Ischemic Stroke, (2) Transcranial Doppler (TCD) ultrasonography, (3) perioperative sleep, (4) quality measures in neuroanesthesia
- (1) Adult traumatic brain injury care and outcomes, (2) Return to Learn after concussion, (3) Pediatric traumatic brain injury guideline adherence and outcomes, (4) Violence prevention in communities, (5) Improving equitable data collection in injury and violence data collection, (6) Trauma transfusion, (7) Using machine learning to predict perioperative deterioration
- (1) Next-gen Opto-GPCRs: spatiotemporal simulation of neuromodulator signaling, (2) Dissecting Dynorphin-Kappa Opioid Mediated Reinstatement of Nicotine Preference, (3) Decoding Locus Coeruleus Neural Circuits and Signaling in Negative Affect,
- Opportunities include bench work, manuscript preparation, study design, statistical analysis, data entry and literature review
- Neural circuits of motivation and reward processing – bench work
(1) What is the emotional experience of emergence from general anesthesia?
(2) How does the experience of stress, or pain, modify emergence and social behavior?
(3) What is the neurobiology of stress and delirium across the lifespan?
Importantly, how can we apply our preclinical knowledge to improving clinical outcomes?
- (1) Case reports; (2) Clinical outcomes research; (3) New project: app development to send ERAS protocol reminders and track recovery measures
- (1) Perioperative Anxiety in Pediatric Surgery, (2) Opiate free pediatric anesthesia, (3) Quality improvement and standardized care in pediatric ambulatory anesthesia, (4) Pediatric anesthesia topics for SPA Global Health Lecture Series (will mentor new topics)
- (1) PPiQSO & Pediatric Data Science – Literature review, statistical analysis, manuscript preparation opportunities
- (1) Pediatric chronic pain;
(2) psychosocial intervention;
(3) interrelationship of sleep and pain
[multiple ongoing studies and clinical trials – please inquire]
- (1) Return to Learn after concussion, (2) Pediatric traumatic brain injury guideline adherence and outcomes, (3) Violence prevention in communities, (4) Improving equitable data collection in injury and violence data collection, (5) Trauma transfusion, (6) Using machine learning to predict perioperative deterioration
- Pediatric regional anesthesiology- please inquire
- Lumbar plexus block case series – manuscript preparation and literature review
- BID Enoxaparin with peripheral nerve catheters-Literature Review and Manuscript Preparation
- (1) Investigation of immediate death of recipient after transplant due to pulmonary embolism
(2) Recipient and donor characteristics associated with increased risk for de novo cancer in liver transplant
(3) Size-mismatch between donor and recipient, and associated outcome
(4) Pulmonary function and post-transplant outcome
(5) Hepato-pulmonary syndrome in liver transplantation
(6) Immediate post-transplant mortality study
(7) Other clinical retrospective studies related to kidney/liver/pancreas transplant