The Twenty-Ninth Peter and Eva Safar Annual Lectureship in Medical Sciences and Humanities and The 7th Safar Symposium

The 7th Annual Safar Symposium was held on May 6, 2009, along with the 29th Peter & Eva Safar Annual Lectureship in Medical Sciences and Humanities, in the Starzl Biomedical Science Tower.  The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette featured this year’s symposium in an article published on May 6.

The morning session of the symposium focused on “Resuscitation in the 21st Century – from Cells to Systems,” was moderated by Drs. Hülya Bayır and Ed Jackson, and featured some of the Center’s most successful fellows on it’s 30th anniversary.  The fist speaker, Michael Whalen, MD, from the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, spoke about “Plasmalemma permeability:  A Therapeutic Target for Brain Trauma?”.  Robert Neumar, MD, from the Center for Resuscitation Science at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, discussed “Calpain-Mediated Injury in Post-Ischemic Neurons.”  Amy Wagner, MD, Associate Director of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation at the Safar Center spoke about “Rehabilitation Perspectives on Neuroresuscitation Research” followed by Robert Clark, MD, Associate Director of Pediatric Neuroscience and Molecular Biology at the Safar Center talked about “Practice, Proclivity, and Paradigm Shifts in Brain Resuscitation.  Rachel Berger, MD, also an Associate Director of Child Abuse at the Safar Center presented exciting data on “Using Serum Biomarkers to Identify and Evaluate Children with Inflicted Traumatic Brain Injury.”  The morning session concluded with current research fellow Dr. David Shellington presented his work on “Advanced Resuscitation of Hemorrhagic Shock After Traumatic Brain Injury.” 

Dr. Shellington was also the recipient of the 7th Nancy Caroline Fellowship Award.  The Caroline Fellowship Award is voted on by all of the Associate Directors of the Safar Center and is open to all fellows currently doing research at the Safar Center.

This year’s Peter & Eva Safar Lecturer was former fellow Dr. Fritz Sterz from the Medical University of Vienna.  Dr. Sterz lecture was titled “Peter Safar and Clinical Cooling”.  Dr. Sterz, an international leader in cardiac arrest clinical trials, gave a passionate overview of hypothermia.  The lecture was followed by a reception for all attending.

The afternoon session of the symposium was held at the Winter Institute for Simulation, Education and Research (WISER) at 230 McKee Place.  This session focused on “Simulation as a Tool for Education and Assessment of Healthcare Providers” and was moderated by Drs. James Gordon and Paul Phrampus.

The afternoon speakers were Dr. Benjamin Berg from the SimTiki Simulation Center at the John A. Burns School of Medicine, University of Hawaii at Manoa.  Dr. Berg spoke on “Simulation at a Distance – Friend or Foe?”  He was followed by Dr. Louis Halamek, Director of the Center for Advanced Pediatric and Perinatal Education at Stanford University who spoke on “Bringing Simulation to Millions:  the Neonatal Resuscitation Program Experience.”  Dr. James Gordon, Director of the Gilbert Program in Medical Simulation at Harvard Medical School gave a lecture titled “Experiential Learning in Medical Education:  The Case for Technology-Enhanced Patient Simulation,” followed by Dr. Mary Paterson, Medical Director of the Cincinnati Children’s Center for Simulation and Research.  Dr. Patterson spoke about “Simulation for Evaluation of System Competence.”  The day concluded with a talk by Dr. Shushma Aggarwal, Resident Rotation Director for Liver Transplant Anesthesia here at Pitt.  She spoke on “Role of Simulation in Resident Education for Liver Transplant Anesthesia.

Following the symposium at the Safar Center for Resuscitation Research the 30th Anniversary of the Center was celebrated with a toast to the late Dr. Peter Safar.