This year, the 15th Annual Safar Symposium took place on May 22nd and 23rd in the Rangos Research Center at the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC. Recognizing the Safar Center’s beautiful new home at the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, the title for this year’s symposium was “Pediatric Neuroanesthesia, Neurocritical Care, Resuscitation, and Rehabilitation: All Roads Lead to CNS.”
Dr. Donna Ferriero
The two-day symposium featured lectures and panels comprised of leading thinkers on the topics of acute brain injury and rehabilitation in infants and children, and drew the highest number of attendees ever in the event’s 15-year history. The lecture session on the first day was followed by the Peter and Eva Safar Lecture for the Sciences and Humanities. This year’s Peter and Eva Safar Lecture was presented by Donna M. Ferriero, MD, MSc, the W. H. and Marie Watts Distinguished Professor and Chair, and the Department of Pediatrics Physician-in-Chief UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital in San Fransisco, CA. Dr. Ferriero is one of the pioneers in the development of neonatal neurocritical care. Dr. Ferriero presented a lecture titled: “The Vulnerable Newborn Brian: Lessons from Neuroimaging.”
Drs. Howard Gutstein, Donna Ferriero, and Patrick Kochanek
The first day of the symposium concluded with the Multi-Departmental Student’s Research Day, which featured poster and oral presentations by trainees form the Departments of Anesthesiology, Critical Care Medicine (CCM), Emergency Medicine (EM), Neurosurgery, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (PM&R).
Beth Kenny gives an oral presentation
Beth Kenny, under the mentorship of Dr. Hulya Bayir of the Department of CCCM, won the Top Oral Presentation for her abstract “Suppression of Ferrotopsis Through Lipoxygenase Inhibition Confers Neuroprotection Following Traumatic Brain Injury.” Anna Iouchmanov, under the mentorship of Dr. Corina Bondi in the Department of PM&R, won the 2nd Place for Oral Presentation for her abstract “Detrimental Effect of Traumatic Brain Injury on Attentional Set-Shifting Behavior in Female Rats.” Marsha Ritter Jones, MD, PhD, under the mentorship of Drs, Kathryn Albers and Brian Davis, in the Department of Anesthesiology, won the prize for Top Overall Poster for her abstract “Skin Overexpression of Neurturin Upregulates TNF-A in CFA Inflammation.”
Dr. Cliff Callaway and Lingue Li
Marta Wells, under the mentorship of Prof. Pei Tang, won the prize for the 1st place Anesthesia Poster. Phillip Adams, DO, under the mentorship of Dr. Joan Sanchez-de-Toledo, won the prize for the 2nd place Anesthesia Poster. Alicia Alcamo, MD, under the mentorship of Dr. Rajesh Aneja, won the prize for Top CCM. Bistra Iordanova, PhD, under the mentorship of Dr. Mioara Manole, won the prize for Top EM Poster. Raj Kumar, MPH, under the mentorship of Dr. Amy Wagner, won the prize for Top PM&R Poster. Yash Kalpesh Pandya BS, under the mentorship of Dr. Gurpreet Surinder Gandhoke, won the prize for Top EM Poster.
Drs. Sam Poloyac and Jessica Wallisch
The second day of the event featured a simulation session at the Peter Winter Institute for Simulation, Education, and Research (WISER), and highlighted developments in pediatric simulation. It featured six speakers. Marc Auerbach, Associate Professor of Pediatric and Emergency Medicine at the Yale School of Medicine, presented a keynote lecture titled “Maximizing the Impact of Simulation-based Research on Patient Outcomes through Collaboration.”
We would like to thank the Ake Grenvik Endowment and the Departments of Anesthesiology, Critical Care Medicine, Emergency Medicine, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, and the administration of the Rangos Research Center for their outstanding support during this year’s Safar Symposium.