Congratulations to Drs. Mihaela Visoiu, Franklyn Cladis, and Kathirvel Subramaniam, who all recently achieved faculty promotions. Each of these individuals have led meritorious careers and have distinguished themselves as superb clinicians, educators, and leaders while maintaining a deep commitment to academic activities, including clinical research, as well as to our department.
Mihaela Visoiu, MD, Site Director of the Division of Acute Pain and Regional Anesthesia at UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, was promoted to Associate Professor. Dr. Visoiu directs all our administrative, educational, and clinical activities related to pediatric acute pain and regional anesthesia. At UPMC Children’s Hospital, she sits on the Pain Management Oversight Committee, the Patient Controlled Analgesia Taskforce, and the Pharmacy and Therapeutic Pain Management Oversight Committee. She is also very active in clinical science research, having served as the PI on seven industry-funded prospective studies on the safety and the efficacy of various analgesics. Over the course of her career, Dr. Visoiu has authored and coauthored 32 publications, including those from projects comparing regional anesthesia techniques with established methods for pain control and developing new pediatric nerve blocks techniques. Dr. Visoiu has participated in and facilitated regional anesthesia workshops at local, national, and international meetings, including the New York School of Regional Anesthesia Annual Symposium on Regional Anesthesia, Pain, and Perioperative Medicine, the International Course for Guidelines and Protocols in Anesthesia, Intensive Care, and Emergency Medicine in Romania, and the Conference of Pediatric Anesthesia at the Children’s Hospital of Mexico.
Franklyn P. Cladis, MD, Clinical Director at UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh and Program Director of our Pediatric Anesthesiology Fellowship, was promoted to Professor. Dr. Cladis provides full-time pediatric anesthesia care at UPMC Children’s Hospital. He also serves on the Pediatric Pain Medicine Service and is a member of the Pediatric Transplant Team. His clinical science research focuses on anesthesia for pediatric craniofacial surgery. Dr. Cladis’ published work includes over 30 peer-reviewed publications and 18 book chapters. He edited the 8th, 9th, and 10th editions of the textbook Smith’s Anesthesia for Infants and Children, an authoritative and nationally and internationally recognized work on pediatric anesthesiology. Dr. Cladis is a Senior (Full) Board Examiner for the ABA and Director of the ABA Pediatric Exam Writing Committee. He has served as the chair for several national committees for the Society for Pediatric Anesthesia and the Society of Education for Anesthesia and is the Immediate Past President of the Pediatric Anesthesiology Program Directors Association Board of Directors. Dr. Cladis is also a serving member and member of the Board of Directors of KomedyPlast, an organization providing craniofacial surgical care for developing nations.
Kathirvel Subramaniam, MD, MPH, Director of our Perioperative Echocardiography Program, Director for the Perioperative Anesthesia Consult Service, and Associate Director of Enhanced Recovery After Surgery, was promoted to Professor. Dr. Subramaniam is engaged in cardiac, thoracic, vascular, and thoracic organ transplantation anesthesiology. He has been honored with awards from our department and UPP for his excellence in clinical teaching. He oversees all trainee education on TEE and TTE, including the TEE rotation, where he mentors residents and fellows to fulfill the echocardiography examination requirements to obtain TEE certification from the National Board of Echocardiography. Dr. Subramaniam’s research focuses on bleeding after cardiac surgery and the role of platelet function testing on postoperative bleeding and transfusion in bypass surgery. He has served as the site investigator for multicenter clinical studies on topics such as antithrombin III and international surgical outcomes. His has authored over 50 peer-reviewed publications, has edited two textbooks, and is an editor of Journal of Perioperative Echocardiography. Dr. Subramaniam is regularly invited to speak at national and international anesthesia meetings and is active in numerous national and international professional organizations, including serving as an Executive Councilor for the Society for the Advancement of Transplant Anesthesia.