The 20th annual Safar Symposium and 13th annual Multi-Departmental Trainees’ Research Day was held on May 18-19, 2023. Building upon the Peter and Eva Safar Lectureship established in 1980 by Peter M. Winter, MD (former chair of the Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine), this yearly event honors the late Peter Safar, MD (founding chair of the Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine), and his wife Eva for their contributions to the scientific community and highlights current research in areas spanning Dr. Safar’s interests. The theme of the 2023 event was Paradigm Shifts in Brain Injury Research.
The Multi-Departmental Trainees’ Research Day is a collaboration between the Departments of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine, Critical Care Medicine, Emergency Medicine, Neurological Surgery, and Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, as well as the Winter Institute for Simulation Education and Research (WISER). Forty-one posters were presented in addition to five oral presentations from one trainee in each of the collaborating departments. The first-place oral presentation award was presented to Sydney Lamerand, a graduate student in the University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Neuroscience Training Program working with mentor Bradley Taylor, PhD, for her presentation “Modulation of Neuropathic Pain in Multiple Sclerosis by Spinal Microglia and Sphingosine-1-Phosphate Receptor S1PR1.” The first-place poster award went to Emanuel Loeza-Alcocer, PhD, from the laboratory of Michael Gold, PhD, for his presentation “Effect of Dorsal Root Ganglion Stimulation on Orthodromic Compound Action Potentials.” The second-place poster award went to our T32 postdoctoral scholar Abigail Hellman, PhD, for her poster presentation titled “Neuropeptide Y1 Interneurons in Inflammatory Pain Circuits.”
Morning presentations on the first day of the symposium included:
- “Havana Syndrome and the Accidental Asset” by Douglas H. Smith, MD, Groff Endowed Professor of Teaching and Research in Neurosurgery, Department of Neurosurgery, University of Pennsylvania
- “Microglial Dysfunction in the Aged and Injured Brain” by David J. Loane, PhD, Associate Professor of Neuroscience, The University of Dublin
- “Minds Matter: Seeing Concussion through New Eyes” by Christina L. Master, MD, FAAP, CAQSM, FACSM, Professor of Pediatrics, University of Pennsylvania, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
- “Augmented Intelligence in Pediatric Neurocritical Care” by Christopher M. Horvat, MD, MHA, Associate Professor, Critical Care Medicine and Pediatrics, UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh
- “Cold Shock Proteins - Can We Achieve the Neuroprotective Promise of Therapeutic Hypothermia” by Jeremy R. Herrmann, MD, Clinical Instructor, Pediatric Critical Care Medicine at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh; NIH T32 Post-Doctoral Scholar, Safar Center for Resuscitation Research, University of Pittsburgh
Geoffrey Manley, MD, PhD, Professor and Vice Chairman of Neurological Surgery at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF), Chief of Neurosurgery at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, and Co-Director of the UCSF Brain and Spinal Injury Center, presented the 42nd Peter and Eva Safar Annual Lecture in Medical Sciences and Humanities, “TRACK-TBI: A 14 Year Journey to Transform Research and Clinical Knowledge in TBI.”
WISER director Paul E. Phrampus, MD, moderated day two of the symposium on May 19th, which had the theme Excellence in Simulation and featured the following presentations:
- “Scholarship in Healthcare Simulation: An Editor’s Perspective” by Mark W. Scerbo, PhD, FHFES, FSSH, Editor-in-Chief, Simulation in Healthcare; Professor and Associate Chair, Human Factors Psychology Old Dominion University; Adjunct Professor of Health Professions, Eastern Virginia Medical School, Norfolk, VA
- “Assessing Assessments in Healthcare Simulation” by Geoffrey T. Miller, PhD(c), EMT-P, FSSH, Associate Professor (P.A.R.), Department of Emergency Medicine, Doctors David S. and Marilyn M. Zamierowski Directorship, Johns Hopkins Medicine Simulation Center; Affiliate Faculty, Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality, Baltimore, MD
- “Simulation and Cancer Care Navigating the System” by Shelita Y. Kimble, M.Ed., CHSOS, Director of Education and Training Business Solutions, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, The Teaching, Inter-Professional, and Simulation (TIPS) Education Center, Houston, TX
- “Confronting Fear: At the Heart of Simulation” by Michael Spooner, MD, MBA, CHSE, FACC, FHRS, FSSH, Director of Electrophysiology and Program Director, Mercy One North Iowa Cardiovascular Fellowship, Mercy One North Iowa Heart Center, Mason City, IA
- “Best Practices in Implementation of XR in Simulation” by Daniel Salcedo, MD, MHPE, Director of Simulation and Educational Technology, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Cleveland, OH
The faculty presentations and the Peter and Eva Safar lecture were recorded and will be available for viewing at a future date on the Safar Center for Resuscitation Research website.