Research News

The University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, in partnership with FARMACEUTICALRX and Pennsylvania’s Medical Marijuana Program, has been awarded $8 million over a 10-year period for research on medical cannabis. The research will be led by Drs. Ajay Wasan and Antoine Douaihy.

Siamak Salavatian, MEng, PhD, Associate Professor of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine, Medicine, and Bioengineering and Director of Neuromodulation Research, has received a $50,000 Pitt Un-Challenge Phase 2 award.

Kimberly Howard-Quijano, MD, MS, FASE, FAHA, has secured funding to support her innovative research on cardiac arrhythmia prevention.

Siamak Salavatian, MEng, PhD, has secured funding for an innovative neuromodulation project aimed at predicting and preventing life-threatening heart arrhythmias.

Fellows engaged in both research training and clinical anesthesia activities, with the opportunity to present their findings at the 2026 ASA Annual Meeting.

We are proud to feature Benedict Alter, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine and Director of Translational Pain Research in this inaugural edition.

Henry Paiste, MD, and Brendan Lynch, MD, anesthesiology residents in our department, were co-authors with Grace Lim, MD, MSc, MBA, of a chapter for Anesthesiology Clinics addressing management of parturients with opioid use disorder.

Aleksander J. Bearden received the Edward M. Stricker Neuroscience Excellence Award from the University of Pittsburgh's Department of Neuroscience, in recognition of outstanding work and research potential.

Previously serving as an Assistant Editor for Anesthesia & Analgesia, Dr. Howard Quijano continues to expand her editorial leadership while advancing our department’s research mission as Associate Vice Chair for Research.

The Pitt research team includes Drs. Murat Kaynar, Harikesh Subramanian, and Senthil Sadhasivam (Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine); Dr. Ryan Shi, (Computer Science); and Dr. Shyam Visweswaran, (Biomedical Informatics).