The 23rd Safar Symposium was held at the University of Pittsburgh on May 7-8, 2026. The morning of the first day of the symposium was held at the University Club and addressed “The Intelligent Health System: Embedded Learning, Quality, and Action in Resuscitation Science.” It was led by Drs. Robert S.B. Clark and Christopher Horvat and featured six outstanding speakers addressing artificial intelligence innovations and applications related to resuscitation science in both the clinical and pre-clinical spaces. The morning session was followed at noon by the 45th Peter and Eva Safar Lecture for the Sciences and Humanities, given by Dr. Vincent Liu, Chief Data Officer of the Permanente Medical Group.
The speakers and organizers of the morning session–from left to right: Drs. Christopher Horvat, Yan Xu, Eric Rosenthal, Robert Stevens, Rema Padman, Romain Pirracchio, Robert Clark, Vincent Liu, Adam Ferguson, and Mohammed Shaik
Vincent Liu, MD, presented the 45th Peter and Eva Safar Lecture. His presentation was titled “AI implementation at Health System-Scale: Promise and Principles.”
An afternoon Trainee Research Day session featured five platform presentations and 61 poster presentations by trainees from the departments of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine, Critical Care Medicine, Emergency Medicine, Neurological Surgery and Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation. On day two, the symposium moved to the Winter Institute for Simulation Education and Research at its new location in Scaife Hall on the University of Pittsburgh Campus. That session addressed the topic “Simulation and Education in Healthcare” and featured five outstanding speakers. Overall, there were over 250 in-person and virtual registrants to the symposium. Selected highlights are shown below.
Several annual Safar Center awards were presented. The recipient of the 24th Nancy Caroline Award, given to the top trainee at the Safar Center, was Sarah Svirsky, PhD, from the Department of Neurological Surgery, and the 7th S. William Stezoski Award for technician excellence was awarded to Yaming Chen.
Sarah Svirsky, PhD receiving the 24th Nancy Caroline award presented by Safar Center Interim Director Robert Clark, MD
Shown here with Dr. Robert Clark, Eddie Pérez Claudio, MS, PhD(c), from the Department of Critical Care Medicine received the top prize for platform presentation at the Trainee Research Day session for his work titled ”Developing Parsimonious Models of Acute Brain Dysfunction for Critically Ill Children in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU): Leveraging Expert Knowledge and Causal Structure Learning.”
Rachel Rice, BS, presenting her work to judge Ava Puccio, RN, PhD, at the Trainees Research Day session. Rachel won the top prize for her basic science poster presentation in the Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine titled “Long noncoding RNA GAS5 modulation of the stress-related phenotypes of chronic intermittent ethanol exposure.” Additional winners included Sarah Margerison, PhD, DPT, MS, also from the Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine, who won first place for her clinical science abstract along with Chelsea Bitler, DO, MS, from the Department of Critical Care Medicine, Nicholas Case, BS, from the Department of Emergency Medicine, Devin Raine Everaldo Cortes, BSc, from Neurological Surgery, and Shejuti Wahed, BS, BA, from the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation.
Simulation program directors Drs. Paul Phrampus and John O’Donnell with speakers from day two of the symposium, “Transforming Pediatric Care Through Simulation” at the Winter Institute for Simulation, Education, and Research. From left to right Ms. Elise Pergie, Mr. Robert Rindone, Drs. Aaron Calhoun, Advait Kothare, Paul Phrampus, Bhavesh Patel, and John O’Donnell.