Chris Seymour’s sepsis advocacy efforts paid off and, for the first time ever, sepsis funding and directives are included in the federal budget. Chris, along with advocates from across the country, played a key role in getting two key sepsis provisions included in the Omnibus Spending Bill that was signed by President Biden in January. This is an important step in developing policies at the hospital level. Sepsis occurs in at least 1.7 million adults in America each year and causes at least 350,000 deaths yearly in the US. You can read the entire announcement on the End Sepsis blog.
Congratulations to Danielle Devine, 2nd yr Peds/CCM fellow, who was selected for the Pitt-UPMC Senior Resident and Fellow Leadership Academy 2023. This is a year-long approach to physician leadership development with multiple interventions.
Tram Duran (Anes/CCM) was awarded the UPSOM Clerkship Preceptor of the Year Award. This award recognizes faculty clinical preceptors who provide outstanding clinical instructions in the clerkship setting for Pitt medical students. Tram is an alumna of the Anesthesia/CCM fellowship program.
Christine Leeper (Surgery ’20), Hernando Gomez (Anes ’10), and Firas Abdulmajeed assumed new leadership roles as Surgical Critical Care Fellowship program director, Anesthesiology Critical Care Fellowship associate program director, and Neurocritical Care Fellowship associate program director, respectively.
Marie Baldisseri (IM ’87) retired June 30, 2023, after 35 years in the department. Marie completed her Critical Care Medicine fellowship at UPMC in 1987 and joined the faculty as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology/CCM, rising to the rank of Professor in the Department of Critical Care Medicine in 2017. In addition, she obtained a Master of Public Health from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in 2014. Marie previously served as ICU Director at Magee Women’s Hospital, Medical Director of the Magee Respiratory Care Services, and Co-Director of the Neurovascular ICU at UPMC Presbyterian Hospital. She has served as Program Director for the Global Health Division of the department and facilitated international training opportunities for our fellows. She also recently served as a member of the University of Pittsburgh Board of Directors. She was one of the original founders of the Fundamentals of Critical Care Support program offered through the Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM), which is designed to teach critical care concepts to non-intensivists. Her honors have included multiple SCCM presidential Citations for service to the organization, an SCCM Special Recognition Award for participation in disaster team efforts in Haiti, the University of Pittsburgh’s Chancellor’s Distinguished Public Service Award, the SCCM Safar Global Health Award, and the SCCM Distinguished Service Award.