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Home Clinical Services Critical Care Medicine Research
Flower Research
Research in the field of critical care medicine is one of our major priorities. Please take a moment to get to know better our staff and their research interests and activities by browsing the links below.
Jeffrey P. Burns, MD, MPH
Dr. Burns serves as Chief of the Division of Critical Care Medicine, as well as the Program Director for the Fellowship in Pediatric Critical Care. He has been awarded the highest teaching award by the Department of Medicine and Anesthesia. His research interest focuses on ethical issues in critical care medicine. Read more...
John H. Arnold, MD
Dr. Arnold serves as the Medical Director of the Department of Respiratory Care, Medical Director of the ECMO Program and Medical Director of Biomedical Engineering. His research interests lie in the area of novel modes of respiratory support. Read more...
David W. Casavant, MD
Dr. Casavant is the Clinical Director of the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at Boston Medical Center. Boston Medical Center is a partner with Children's Hospital Boston in training pediatric residents. Dr. Casavant is on the teacher-clinician advancement tract. Read more...
Amy Durall, MD
Dr. Durall's research interests involve palliative care and end-of-life issues in children. She completed a research project to determine the number of potential kidney donation after cardiac death donors in the Medical/Surgical Intensive Care Unit (MSICU) & the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit (CICU) at CHB over a 3 year period. Read more...
Robert J. Graham, MD
Dr. Graham is an associate in the Division of Critical Care Medicine at Children?s Hospital Boston and is the director of resident and medical student education for the division. Through research, clinical interventions, and teaching, he has extended critical care services beyond the confines of the intensive care unit to optimize outcomes, quality of care, and resource utilization for children with chronic technology dependence and their families. At Children?s Hospital, he developed a novel clinical program, the Critical Care, Anesthesia, and Perioperative Extension (CAPE) and Home Ventilation Program, which provides home-visits, care coordination, and consultation for children with chronic respiratory insufficiency and other complex special heath care needs. Read more...
Susan Hamilton, RN, MS, CCRN
Susan Hamilton is the Clinical Nurse Specialist for the MSICU. She provides education and support for a nursing staff of over 100 nurses. Her research interests are in the area of nursing clinical care and outcomes. Read more...
Monica E. Kleinman, MD
Dr. Kleinman serves as Clinical Director of the Medical/Surgical Intensive Care Unit, Medical Director for the Children's Hospital Transport Service, and the co-Director of Patient Safety and Quality Improvement for the Medical/Surgical Intensive Care Unit. She has been awarded the Department of Medicine's highest teaching award, and received the Critical Care Medicine fellows? teaching award in 2009. Her clinical and research interests are in resuscitation and transport medicine, and she is now involved in the field of progeria, a premature aging disease. Read more...
Daniel S. Kohane, MD, PhD
Dr. Kohane's research focuses on a wide range of medical problems including pain, peritoneal and other adhesions, vaccine vehicles, intracranial drug delivery , patient-controlled drug delivery systems, antifungal surfaces, intracellular delivery of enzymes/inborn errors of metabolism, drug delivery to the eye and ear, and others. He has employed microparticles, nanoparticles, hydrogels, combination systems and others. Read more...
Michael L. McManus, MD, MPH
Dr. McManus is Chief of Pediatrics at South Shore Hospital and assists in coordinating Children's efforts to establish a state-wide pediatric network. He is currently engaged in health policy research and is a member of the Advisory Committee to the Massachusetts Health Care Quality and Cost Council. Read more...
Nilesh Mehta, MD
Dr. Mehta's research interest is focused on the metabolic and nutritional aspects of critically ill children. Under the mentorship of Dr. Christopher Duggan (Chief, Clinical Nutrition Services and Assoc. Prof. in Gastroenterology/Nutrition at Children's Hospital) he is part of the multidisciplinary Center for Advanced Intestinal Rehabilitation (CAIR) and is involved in the management of children with short bowel syndrome (SBS) at Children's Hospital Boston. He the PI for a multidisciplinary, scientific clinical study examining body composition, energy expenditure and intestinal adaptation in children with SBS. He has received funding from the Fred. Lovejoy Research Fund and the project is supported by the GCRC. Read more...
Robert C. Pascucci, MD
Dr. Pascucci's research interests lie in the area of resuscitation, stabilization, and transport of the critically ill patient, and in simulation training of staff in resuscitation and in communication skills. Read more...
Gregory P. Priebe, MD
Dr. Priebe is principal investigator at the Channing Laboratory of an NIH-funded basic research laboratory studying the pathogenesis and immunology of lung infections due to the Gram-negative bacterial pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Methods used in Dr. Priebe's lab span multiple fields, including microbiology, molecular biology, cellular and molecular immunology, and animal models of infection.
Adrienne G. Randolph, MD, MSc
Dr. Randolph serves as Chair of the Pediatric Acute Lung Injury and Sepsis Investigator's Network that is comprised of 50 pediatric ICUs across the US and Canada. She is also the Director of the RSV and Asthma Clinical Research Center at Children's Hospital, Boston. Her research interests include genetic epidemiology, clinical trials, and treatment strategies for managing acute respiratory failure in children.
Rana Sharara-Chami, MD
Dr. Sharara-Chami started her translational research project during fellowship at Dr. Joseph Majzoub's lab in the division of Endocrinology. She is interested in the response to stress-dose steroids supplementation in the ICU in the setting of septic shock and hence, she is studying catecholamines regulation by glucocorticoids in the setting of adrenal suppression. She is investigating intra-adrenal levels of corticosterone (rodent equivalent of cortisol), norepinephrine and epinephrine levels as well as the PNMT enzyme level through qRTPCR (PNMT is the enzyme that converts norepineprhine to epinephrine). She is also working on becoming an expert at noninvasive blood pressure measurement in rodents. Read more...
Robert D. Truog, MD
Dr. Robert Truog is the Director of Clinical Ethics at Harvard Medical School, as well as, a Professor of Anaesthesia, Pediatrics, and Medical Ethics at Harvard Medical School. His academic work has focused on the ethical issues that arise in anesthesia and critical care, and he recently authored national guidelines for providing end-of-life care in the ICU. Read more...
Sally H. Vitali, MD
Dr. Vitali has been a Research Associate in Anesthesia at Children's Hospital Boston and has continued her research examining the effects of hypoxia on the endothelium and the pathophysiology and molecular biology of hypoxia-induced pulmonary hypertension. Read more...

Peter Weinstock, MD, PhD
Dr. Weinstock serves as Director of Children's on-site pediatric Simulator Program. His research interests focus on optimizing medical education via high fidelity patient simulation with a focus on quality improvement and patient safety. Read more...
Gerhard K. Wolf, MD
Dr. Wolf serves as the pediatric medical director of Boston Med Flight. Dr. Wolf's research focuses on novel modes of ventilation in pediatric acute respiratory distress syndrome. He is currently working on the clinical application of ventilator strategies to improve recruitment and oxygenation as well as on basic research in a large animal model using liquid ventilation. Read more...
Dr. Burns is the author of nearly 50 manuscripts and book chapters. His research has focused on bringing empirical study to decision-making controversies at the end-of-life in the intensive care unit. He has received three grants to study these issues, and designed, implemented, and analyzed three multicenter studies of decision-making controversies in the intensive care unit. The first, a multicenter study of end-of-life-care in pediatrics, is the largest study in the literature on this topic and has led to four publications and numerous editorials. The second, a study to improve decision-making in the intensive care unit at four Harvard teaching hospitals, is acknowledged by the Society of Critical Care Medicine to be one of the most in-depth investigations of its kind in adult critical care with four publications to date. More recently, he has mentored three junior faculty in research projects that have all been published in the medical literature. The first was an outcome study of children with congenital neurodevelopmental disabilities who are admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit that was selected as the feature article in Pediatric Critical Care Medicine. The second was a study of neonatologists' decision-making practices in the delivery room for infants on the borderline of viability with the first part published in the Journal of Pediatrics and the second part in the journal Pediatrics. The last was a description of the development of a Simulator Suite at an academic teaching hospital.

  • Burns JP, Mello MM, Studdert DM, Puopolo AL, Truog RD, Brennan TA. Results of a controlled clinical trial on care improvement for the critically ill. Critical Care Medicine 2003;31:2107-2117.

  • Studdert DM, Burns JP, Mello MM, Puopolo AL, Truog RD, Brennan TA. Nature of conflict in the care of pediatric intensive care patients with prolonged stay. Pediatrics 2003;112:553-558.

  • Mello MM, Burns JP, Studdert DM, Puopolo AL, Truog RD, Brennan TA. Decision Making and Satisfaction With Care in the Pediatric ICU: Findings From a Controlled Clinical Trial. Pediatric Critical Care Medicine. 2004 Jan;5(1):40-47.

  • Graham RJ, Dumas HM, O'Brien JE, Burns JP. Congenital Neurodevelopmental Diagnoses in an Intensive Care Unit: Defining a Population. Pediatric Critical Care Medicine. 2004 Jul;5(4):321-8.

  • Peerzada JM, Richardson DK, Burns JP. Delivery Room Decision-Making at the Threshold of Viability, Journal of Pediatrics. 2004 Oct;145(4):492-8.

  • Bastek TK, Richardson DK, Zupancic JA, Burns JP. Prenatal Consultation Practices at the Border of Viability: A Regional Survey. Pediatrics. 2005 Aug;116 (2):407-13.

  • Weinstock, P, Stanley L, Kleinman ME, Hickey P, Greneir B, Burns JP. Towards a New Paradigm in Hospital-based Pediatric Education: The Development of an On-Site Simulator Program. Pediatric Critical Care Medicine. 2005 Nov;6(6):635-641.
Dr. Arnold's research interests encompass novel modes of ventilation in pediatric respiratory failure, the pathophysiology of acute lung injury, and modes of lung protective ventilation (particularly partial liquid breathing). He has recently helped to develop a non-invasive imaging technology called Electrical Impedance Tomography, which offers the ability to quantify lung volume changes during mechanical ventilation. He receives grant support from Viasys Critical Care and Synthetic Blood International and is the institutional PI for a multicenter trial of Prone Positioning in Pediatric Acute Lung Injury.

  • Curley MAQ, Fineman LD, Cvijanovich N, Grant MJC, Shih MC, Wypij D, Thompson JE, Barr R, Sorce L, Luckett P, Hibberd PL, Matthay MA, Arnold JH. Effect of prone positioning on clinical outcomes in children with acute lung injury: a randomized controlled trial. JAMA 2005;294:229-237.
  • Randolph AG, Forbes P, Gedeit RG, Arnold JH, Wetzel R, Luckett PM, O?Neil ME, Venkataraman ST, Meert KL, Cheifetz IM, Cox PN, Hanson JH for the Pediatric Acute Lung Injury and Sepsis Investigator?s (PALISI) Network. Cumulative fluid intake minus output is not associated with ventilator weaning duration or extubation outcomes in children. Ped Crit Care Med 2005;6:642-647.
  • Curley MAQ, Harris SK, Fraser K, Johnson R, Arnold JH. State Behavioral Scale (SBS): A Sedation Assessment Instrument for Infants and Young Children Supported on Mechanical Ventilation. Ped Crit Care Med 2006; 7:107-114.
  • Curley MAQ, Arnold JH, Thompson JE, Fackler JC, Grant MJ, Fineman LD, Cvijanovich N, Barr FE, Molitor-Kirsch S, Steinhorn DM, Matthay MA, Hibberd PL. Clinical Trial Design - Effect of prone positioning on clinical outcomes in infants and children with acute respiratory distress syndrome. J Crit Care 2006; 21:23-32.
  • Mehta NM, Halwick DR, Dodson BL, Thompson JE, Arnold JH. Potential drug sequestration during extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) - results from an ex vivo experiment. Intensive Care Medicine 2007;33:1018-1024.
  • Wolf GK, Grychtol B, van Genderingen H, Zurakowski D, Thompson JE, Arnold JH. Regional lung volume changes in children with acute respiratory distress syndrome during a derecruitment maneuver. Crit Care Med 2007;35:1972-1978.
  • Wolf GK, Sheeran P, Heitz D, Thompson JE, Arnold JH. Gas exchange and lung mechanics during high frequency ventilation in the perflubron-treated lung. Ped Crit Care Med 2008;9:641-646.
  • Adler A, Arnold JH, Bayford R, Borsic A, Brown B, Dixon P, Faes TJC, Frerichs I, Gagnon H, Garber Y, Grychtol B, Hahn G, Lionheart WRB, Malik A, Patterson RP, Stocks J, Tizzard A, Weiler N, Wolf GK.GREIT: a unified approach to 2D linear EIT reconstruction of lung images. Physiol Meas 2009;30:S35-S55.
  • Grychtol B, Wolf GK, Arnold JH. Differences in pulmonary pressure-impedance curves before and after lung injury assessed with a novel algorithm. Physiol Meas 2009;30: S137-S148.
  • Turner DA, Heitz D, Zurakowski D, Arnold JH. Automated measurement of the lower inflection point in a pediatric lung model. . Ped Crit Care Med, in press.
  • Ventre KM, Arnold JH. Acute parenchymal disease in infants and children, in Fink MB, Abraham A, Vincent J-L, Kochanek PM (eds.), Textbook of Critical Care (5th edition), Elsevier, Philadelphia, 2005, 707-718.
  • Wolf GK, Arnold JH. Non-invasive assessment of lung volume: respiratory inductance plethysmography and electric impedance tomography. Crit Care Med 2005;33:S163-S169.
  • Mehta NM, Arnold JH. Sublingual capnometry in pediatric patients. Yearbook of Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 2005, 537-550.
  • Wolf GK, Arnold JH. Assessment of alveolar recruitment: new approaches. Yearbook of Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 2005, 116-128.
  • Vitali SH, Arnold JH. Bench-to-bedside review: Ventilator strategies to reduce lung injury- lessons from pediatric and neonatal intensive care. Critical Care 2005;9:177-183.
  • Vitali SH, Camerota AJ, Arnold JH. Anesthesia and analgesia, in Avery GB, Fletcher MA, MacDonald MG (eds.), Neonatology: Pathophysiology and Management of the Newborn (6th Edition), J.B. Lippincott, Philadelphia, 2005, 1557-1571.
  • Mehta NM, Arnold JH. Genetic polymorphisms in ARDS: New approach to an old problem. Critical Care Medicine 2005;33:2443-2445.
  • Arnold JH, Fackler JC. Anesthetic principles and operating room anesthesia regimens, in Fuhrman BP, Zimmerman JJ (eds.), Pediatric Critical Care (3rd edition), C.V. Mosby, St. Louis, 2006, 1719-1728.
  • Wolf GK, Arnold JH. Electrical Impedance Tomography- ready for prime time? Intensive Care Medicine 2006;32:1290-1292.
  • Wolf GK, Arnold JH. High-frequency oscillation in pediatric ventilatory failure. Paediatrics and Child Health 2007; 17: 77-81.
  • Wolf GK, Arnold JH. Measurement of dead space compartments: On the road to somewhere. Pediatric Crit Care Med 2007;8: 408-409.
  • Turner DA, Arnold JH. Insights in Pediatric Ventilation: Timing of Intubation, Ventilatory Strategies, and Weaning. Curr Opin Crit Care. 2007;13:57-63.
  • Wolf GK, Arnold JH. Assessing the benefits of noninvasive ventilation: The tissue is the issue. Crit Care Med 2008: 36: 349-350
  • Wolf GK, Arnold JH. A (Large) Step Toward Improved Lung Protection. Pediatric Crit Care Med 2008; 9:127-128.
  • Heulitt MJ, Wolf GK, Arnold JH: Mechanical Ventilation, in Nichols DG (ed.), Rogers? Textbook of Pediatric Intensive Care, 4th Edition, Williams & Wilkins, Baltimore, 2008, 508-532.
  • Ventre KM, Arnold JH. Acute Lung Injury and the Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome, in Nichols DG (ed.), Rogers? Textbook of Pediatric Intensive Care, 4th Edition, Williams & Wilkins, Baltimore, 2008, 731-753.
  • Ventre KM, Arnold JH. Acute Lung Injury and Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome: Contemporary Management Strategies, in Shanley TP (ed.), Current Concepts in Pediatric Critical, 2008.
  • Wolf GW, Arnold JH. Electrical Impedance Tomography, in Shanley TP (ed.), Current Concepts in Pediatric Critical, 2008.
  • Ventre KM, Arnold JH. High frequency oscillatory ventilation, in Wheeler DS, Wong HR, Shanley TP, Pediatric Critical Care Medicine: Basic Science and Clinical Evidence, Springer-Verlag, in press.
  • Wolf GK, Arnold JH. Respiratory Disorders: ECMO, in Cloherty JP, Stark AR, Eichenwald E (eds). Manual of Neonatal Care (6th edition), Williams & Wilkins, Philadelphia, in press.
  • Turner DA, Arnold JH. Improving Our Approach to Sedation in the ICU: Is it Time to Inhale? Pediatric Crit Care Med, in press.
  • Ibla JC, Arnold JH. In Georg Hansmann (ed.) Neonatal Emergencies: A Practical Guide For Resuscitation, Transport and Critical Care Of Newborn Infants, in press.
  • Wolf GK, Soriano SG, Arnold JH: Specific aspects of positioning, fluid, glucose control and temperature management. In: Perioperative Complications in Neurosurgical Anesthesia and Critical Care Medicine. Springer, New York; 2009, in press.
  • Wolf GK, Arnold JH. Synchronizing ventilatory support with the neural signal to breathe. Pediatric Crit Care Med, in press.
During fellowship, Dr. Casavant focused his research on novel technology and the genome in the ICU. He analyzed the DNA of patients with congenital diaphragmatic hernia using the microarray-based technology comparative genomic hybridization. Most recently his interests have turned to teaching focusing on training residents in emergency and code situations. He is presently developing a Mock Code curriculum at Boston Medical Center that will parallel and extend the program at Children's Hospital Boston. This program will eventually include simulator training for residents as the simulator program at Boston Medical Center develops.
Dr. Durall participated in another donation after cardiac death (DCD) research project involving focus groups to elicit staff perspectives about DCD in our own institution. In addition to her interest in DCD, Dr. Durall is currently researching clinician and parental attitudes regarding advanced care planning, resuscitation status and the Do Not Resuscitate order.

  • Amy L. Durall, Peter C. Laussen, and Adrienne G. Randolph. Potential for Donation After Cardiac Death in a Children's Hospital. Pediatrics, Jan 2007; 119: e219 - e224.

Dr. Graham Dr. Graham?s health services research efforts also focus on the interface between critical care services and children with technology dependence and chronic disabilities. He published the first descriptive study of children with neurodevelopmental disabilities in the PICU. Findings from his subsequent qualitative needs assessment of parents of children with disabilities in the ICU were integrated into the Program to Enhance Relations and Communication Skills (PERCS) curriculum, which is offered through the Institute for Professionalism and Ethical Practice (IPEP) as an interdisciplinary training program designed to improve the communication skills and relational abilities of trainees and staff members who must deliver and discuss difficult news with pediatric patients and their families.

  • Graham RJ, Dumas HM, O'Brien JE, Burns JP. Congenital neurodevelopmental diagnoses and an intensive care unit: defining a population. Pediatr Crit Care Med. 2004;5(4):321-8. (featured article)

  • Graham RJ. An opportunity: Critical care beyond the intensive care unit. Pediatr Crit Care Med. 2005;6(3):327-328.

  • Graham RJ, Robinson WM. Integrating Palliative Care into Chronic Care for Children with Severe Neurodevelopmental Disabilities. J Dev Behav Pediatr. 2005;26(5):361-365.

  • Graham RJ, Fleegler EW, Robinson WM. Chronic Ventilator Need in the Community: A 2005 Pediatric Census of Massachusetts. Pediatrics. 2007;119(6):e1280-1287.

  • Graham RJ, Pemstein DM, Palfrey JS. Included but isolated: early intervention programmes provision for children and families with chronic respiratory support needs. Child Care Health Dev. 2008;34(3):373-9.

  • Graham RJ, Pemstein DM, Curley MAQ. Experiencing the pediatric intensive care unit: Perspective of parents of children with severe antecedent disabilites. Crit Care Med. 2009: April 20 Epub ahead of print (featured article)

  • Graham RJ, Athiraman U, Laubach AE, Sehtna NF. Anesthesia and perioperative medical management of children with spinal muscular atrophy. Paediatr Anaesth. 2009 (featured article)
Susan Hamilton has completed a randomized controlled clinical trial comparing two eye care therapies on the incidence of corneal abrasions in critically ill pediatric patients. Her current projects include monitoring techniques for intra-abdominal hypertension and nutrition in the ICU.

Dr. Kleinman is on the clinician-teacher promotional tract. To this end, she is heavily involved in educational activities and curriculum development. Dr. Kleinman co-directs the mock code section of the curriculum for critical care fellows and residents. Dr. Kleinman is the chair of the hospital?s CPR Committee, and co-authored the Code Team Training Manual for the institution. She serves as the medical director for the Pediatric Advanced Life Support and Basic Life Support training centers at the hospital, with oversight responsibility for the active PALS and BLS programs.

Dr Kleinman is involved in the American Heart Association's Emergency Cardiovascular Care (ECC) Program on a regional and national level. She recently completed a two-year term as chair of the AHA?s Pediatric Subcommittee, and is now the Vice Chair for ECC. In this capacity Dr. Kleinman actively participated in the evidence-based literature review and guidelines revision process for resuscitation guidelines released by the AHA in 2005, and was co-editor of the PALS textbook and instructor manual. For the 2010 Guidelines revision process she is also serving as co-chair of the Pediatric Task Force for the International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation.

Dr. Kleinman's second major area of interest is transport medicine. She is a past member of the Executive Committee of the American Academy of Pediatrics' Section on Transport Medicine. She served as the Associate Editor of the third edition of the Guidelines for Air and Ground Transport of Neonatal and Pediatric Patients, an official Academy publication that was published in 2006. Dr. Kleinman developed and teaches a monthly curriculum on transport medicine for the pediatric critical care medicine fellows. She has supervised residents, fellows, and nurses in research projects related to transport medicine, resulting in several abstracts that were presented at national meetings.

Dr. Kleinman is part of a multi-disciplinary team that is conducting the first clinical trial for children with progeria. Progeria is a rare childhood disease that results in premature cardio- and cerebrovascular disease as well as other signs consistent with aging. The progeria clinical trial has enrolled 28 patients from 16 countries, and a second trial is planned to begin in the second half of 2009.
Dr. Kohane's unifying research theme is drug delivery and biomaterials. In this multidisciplinary field, the specific application is less important than the development of an approach or set of approaches. The skilled practitioner applies engineering principles, biology, and knowledge of biomaterials to achieve a given goal. While addressing specific disease states is important, the thrust of research is to create methods by which drugs can be delivered to a range of sites in a variety of circumstances. This often requires the development of novel biomaterials. The Laboratory for Biomaterials and Drug Delivery includes PhD and MD scientists, and graduate and undergraduate students with a wide range of backgrounds.

We have extensive experience with hydrogels, and micro- and nanoparticulate formulations to produce prolonged duration local anesthetics; ideally, lasting days to weeks - and in the use of a wide range of active agents to that end. That research has also focused on the use of site 1 sodium channel blockers such as tetrodotoxin, and on the use of synergistic drug combinations. We have developed several hydrogel-based approaches to preventing peritoneal adhesions, such as in situ cross-linking hyaluronic acid hydrogels containing nanoparticles, or that release tissue plasminogen activator; cross-linked gels that contain anti-inflammatory compounds freely dispersed in the matrix or conjugated to the polymeric backbone; hydrogels based on cellulosics or dextrans. We have produced formulations for the focal treatment and/or prophylaxis of epilepsy by intracranial depots; pH-sensitive microparticles to enhance antigen delivery for vaccines; drug delivery systems whose drug release rates can be adjusted by the patient or physician; hydrogels containing antifungal agents with extended fungicidal activity; methods of enhancing drug flux into the ear; optimization of the performance characteristics of a prosthetic cornea; methods of preventing or treating tracheal stenosis; methods of improving the efficiency of enzyme replacement therapy for inborn errors of metabolism; engineering of complex tissues with or without stem cells; methods of improving chemoembolization for hepatocellular carcinoma; biomaterials for islet cell transplantation; mesoporous silicates for drug delivery; microparticles for inhalational delivery of pulmonary vasodilators or antibiotics; micro- and nanoparticles for use in the food, beverage, and agricultural industries; assessment of biocompatibility, and many others.
  • Kohane DS, Yieh J, Lu NT, Langer R, Strichartz GR, Berde CB: A re-examination of tetrodotoxin for prolonged duration local anesthesia. Anesthesiology 1998; 89: 119-31

  • Kohane DS, Holmes GL, Chau Y, Zurakowski D, Langer R, Cha BH: Effectiveness of muscimol-containing microparticles against pilocarpine-induced focal seizures. Epilepsia 2002; 43: 1462-8

  • Kohane DS, Smith SE, Louis DN, Colombo G, Ghoroghchian P, Hunfeld NGM, Berde CB, Langer RS: Prolonged duration local anesthesia from tetrodotoxin-enhanced local anesthetic microspheres. Pain 2003; 104: 415-421

  • Haining WN, Anderson DG, Little SR, von Berwelt-Baildon MS, Cardoso AA, Alves P, Kosmatopoulos K, Nadler LM, Langer R, Kohane DS: pH-triggered microparticles for peptide vaccination. J. Immunol. 2004; 174: 2578-2585

  • Yeo Y, Bellas E, Firestone W, Langer R, Kohane DS: Complex coacervates for thermally sensitive controlled release of flavor compounds. J Agric Food Chem 2005; 53: 7518-25

  • Ito T, Fraser IP, Yeo Y, Highley CB, Bellas E, Kohane DS: Anti-inflammatory function of an in-situ cross-linkable conjugate hydrogel of hyaluronic acid and dexamethasone. Biomaterials 2007; 28: 1778-1786

  • Yeo Y, Ito T, Bellas E, Highley CB, Marini R, Kohane DS: In situ cross-linkable hyaluronan hydrogels containing polymeric nanoparticles for preventing post-surgical adhesions. Ann Surg 2007; 245: 819-824

  • Yeo Y, Bellas E, Highley CB, Langer R, Kohane DS: Prevention of peritoneal adhesions with hyaluronan gel containing tissue-type plasminogen activator in a rabbit model. Biomaterials 2007; 28:3704-3713

  • Zumbuehl A, Ferreira L, Kuhn D, Asthashkina A, Long L, Yeo Y, Iaconis T, Ghannoum M, Fink GR, Langer R, Kohane DS: Antifungal hydrogels. Proc Natl Acad Sci 2007; 104: 12994-8

  • Kohane DS: Microparticles and nanoparticles for drug delivery. Biotechnol Bioeng 2007; 96: 203-209

Selected publications by Dr. McManus include:

  • Litvak E, Long M, Cooper A and McManus ML: Emergency Room Diversion: Causes and Solutions. Academic Emergency Medicine 8 (11): November 2001

  • McManus, ML: Emergency Department Overcrowding in Massachusetts: Making Room in Our Hospitals. Issue Brief (Massachusetts Health Policy Forum) 2001 Jun 7;(12):1-38.

  • McManus ML, Cooper A, Long MC, Berwick DM, Mandell JM and Litvak E. Variability in demand and access to pediatric intensive care services Anesthesiology 98(6):1491-96, 2003

  • Litvak E, McManus ML, Cooper A: Root Cause Analysis of Emergency Department Crowding and Ambulance Diversion in Massachusetts. Report of a study commissioned by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. Released October 2002 by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts: http://www.state.ma.us/dph/dhcq/hcqskel.html

  • McManus, ML, Cooper A, Long MC, and Litvak E, Queueing theory accurately models the need for critical care resources Anesthesiology 2004 May;100(5):1271-6

  • Litvak E, Buerhaus PI, Davidoff F, Long MC, McManus ML, Berwick DM: Managing unnecessary variability in patient demand to reduce nursing stress and improve patient safety Jt Comm J Qual Patient Saf, 2005 June, 31(6):330-38
Dr. Mehta is trained in the performance of indirect calorimetry and is investigating caloric intake and energy balance in critically ill children. He is the PI on a project aimed at characterizing the metabolic state of post-operative infants in the cardiac ICU after cardiopulmonary bypass. Dr. Mehta has written 2 chapters on critical care nutrition in leading ICU and Nutrition textbooks. He regularly lectures at the Introduction to Nutrition annual seminar at the Ender's Auditorium, Boston since 2006.

Dr. Mehta's other research interest involves the examination of (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation) ECMO therapy, in particular the interactions between drugs and the ECMO circuit. His study on the dramatic and rapid in vitro losses of commonly used drugs during circulation through ECMO circuit was published in 2007. Dr. Mehta received the Young Investigator Award and presented the results of this study at the ASCCA conference at Chicago in 2007. Dr. Mehta was involved in the validation of sublingual capnometry in critically ill children and has shown the feasibility of using this measurement in infants on the buccal mucosa. He has authored multiple critical care publications and has presented results of his research at multiple international scientific conferences.

  • Mehta NM, Halwick DR, Dodson BL, Thompson JT and Arnold JH. Potential drug sequestration during ECMO-results from an ex vivo experiment. Intensive Care Med. 2007 June;33(6):1018-1024.

  • Mehta NM, Arnold JH. Genetic polymorphisms in acute respiratory distress syndrome: new approach to an old problem. Crit Care Med. 2005 Oct;33(10):2443-5.

  • Mehta NM, Thomas RM. Antenatal screening for Rubella-Infection or Immunity? BMJ 2002 Jul 13;325(7355):90-1.

  • Mehta NM, Hartnoll G. Callosal agenesis in lipoma with congenital CMV. Pediatr Neurol, Apr2001, Vol 24/3, 222-4.

  • Mehta N, Demunter C, Habibi P, Nadel S and Britto J. Short-term propofol infusions in children. Lancet. 1999 Sep 4;354(9181):866-7.

  • Thomas RM, Mehta NM. Cases of congenital rubella may be the tip of the iceberg. BMJ 2002 Sep 14;325(7364):596B.

  • Mehta N, Stone J, Whitelaw A. Practical management of hyperinsulinism in infancy. Arch Dis Child Fetal Neonatal Ed. 2001 May;84(3):F218.

  • Mehta N, Macintosh I, Rivers R, Nadel S. Acute chest syndrome of sickle cell disease. J Pediatr. 2000 Oct; 137(4):589.

  • Mehta N, Reeve A and Britto J. How To: Guide- PICCs in children. Care of the critically ill, Aug. 1999 (15.5).

  • N M. Mehta and R M. Nicholl. Positioning of long lines. Arch Dis Child Fetal Neonatal Ed. 2002 Jan;86(1):F68-9.

  • A J Pollard, S Nadel, N Mehta, C De Munter, J Britto, P Habibi, M Levin. Are cuffed endotracheal tubes really indicated in the management of meningococcal disease? eArch Dis Child, 3/01/01.

  • Mehta NM, Arnold JH. Mechanical ventilation in pediatric respiratory failure. Curr Opin Crit Care, Jan 2004.

  • Mehta N, Levin M. Mgt and prevention of meningococcal disease. Hosp Prac 2000;35(8):75-86.

  • Mehta N and Whitelaw A. Comparison of Hemacue, Precision G and Hexokinase methods of blood glucose estimation (Abstract). Pediatr Res, April 1999.

  • Mehta N, Nadel S, Booy R, Galassini R, Morrisson A, Levin M. Reduction in Case Fatality Rate for Meningococcal Disease associated with improved Healthcare delivery. Pediatr Res, Apr 2000, Vol. 47. No.4, 271A.

  • Mehta N, Nadel S, Newport M, Booy R, Levin M. Association of Fatal Meningococcal Disease with possession of the Tumour Necrosis Factor alpha 2 Allele. Pediatr Res, Apr 2000, (47)4, 271A.

  • Hadzic N, Layton M, Baker A, Mehta N, Britto J, Mieli-Vergani G. Multiorgan and acute liver failure related to haemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis in children. J Hepatol 2002;36 (Suppl.1):263

Dr. Pascucci's current research is based within the Children's Hospital Simulator program, where he has assisted in the development of simulation as a teaching tool for pediatric residents on their ICU rotation. In this capacity, he has focused on the use of simulation to teach not only crisis-management skills but also to teach typical ICU skills (airway management, line insertion) and team development. As a member of the Program to Enhance Relationship and Communication Skills (PERCS) development team, he has also been instrumental in the expansion of simulation teaching techniques to the domain of interpersonal communication. PERCS participants explore and expand their ability to communicate and develop relationships with parents, patients, and other health care personnel as they deal with difficult conversations (end-of-life, medical error, angry parent issues are examples) in the course of providing health care. In addition to providing these experiences to the direct participants, the program is attempting to develop methods to assess its effectiveness in so doing, and is developing videotaped tools for use in the education of a wider audience.
Selected publications by Dr. Sharara-Chami include:

  • Sharara-Chami RI, Majzoub JA. Catecholamine regulation during glucocorticoid therapy. American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, volume 175, Abstracts Issue, April 2007.

  • Sharara-Chami RI, Pacak K, Majzoub JA. Catecholamine regulation during glucocorticoid therapy in mice without stress. Pediatrics Critical Care Medicine, volume 8 (3), book of Abstracts, May 20.

Dr. Truog is the Principal Investigator on an NIH RO1 grant, developed in collaboration with Dr. Millie Solomon and the Education Development Center. The protocol initially involves the development of tools to evaluate the quality of end-of-life care in the pediatric ICU setting. These tools will then be used to examine the outcomes of fifty consecutive deaths occuring in each of eight geographically dispersed pediatric intensive care units. The study will run over four years, from 2005-2009.

"Interpersonal and Communication Skills" are one of the six core competencies identified by the ACGME. Dr. Truog is the Principal Investigator for the Program to Enhance Relational and Communication Skills (PERCS) - an innovative program to enhance and evaluate these skills throughout the Harvard teaching hospitals. The program is funded through grants from the Children's Hospital Center for the Critically Ill Child, the Argosy Foundation, the Harvard Risk Management Foundation, and the New England Organ Bank. The template for the program is a one-day workshop featuring opportunities for trainees to practice communication and relational skills with trained actors around specific scenarios, with videotaped review and structured feedback. We are currently conducting and/or developing programs in breaking bad news, disclosing and apologizing for medical error, approaching families for consent for organ donation, working with "angry" patients and families, counseling the parents of premature newborns, and developing strategies for conducting the preoperative interview and obtaining informed consent for anesthesia and surgery.

Dr. Truog was the lead author on guidelines adopted by the Society of Critical Care Medicine on end-of-life care in the ICU, published in 2001. He is now heading-up the effort to revise these guidelines, which will be endorsed by SCCM and published in Critical Care Medicine in late 2006.

Dr. Truog writes on many other areas of interest in biomedical ethics, including ethical issues in the conduct of research, controversies surrounding brain death and organ donation, the interpretation of do-not-resuscitate orders, and the determination of medical futility.

A partial list of his publications in 2005 is below:

  • Truog RD. The ethics of organ donation by living donors. N Engl J Med 2005; 353(5):444-446.

  • Truog RD. Will ethical requirements bring critical care research to a halt? Intensive Care Med 2005; 31(3):338-344.

  • Truog RD. Increasing the participation of children in clinical research. Intensive Care Med 2005; 31(6):760-761.

  • Truog RD. Are organs personal property or a societal resource? Am J Bioeth 2005; 5(4):14-16.

  • Truog RD. Organ donation without brain death? Hastings Cent Rep 2005; 35(6):3.

  • Truog RD, Waisel DB, Burns JP. Do-not-resuscitate orders in the surgical setting. Lancet 2005; 365(9461):733-735.

  • Truog RD. Medical futility in intensive care. ICU Management 2005; 1:12-14.

  • Truog RD, Lowney J, Hanto D, Caplan A, Brock D. Soliciting organs on the internet. Medical Ethics Forum 2005;(Fall):5-8.

  • Truog RD. Variability in end-of-life care--how much is too much? Pediatr Crit Care Med 2005; 6(3):368-369.

  • Truog RD. End-of-life care in the pediatric ICU. Critical Connections. In press.
Dr. Vitali began during her fellowship laboratory research investigating the protective role of the enzyme Heme Oxygenase-1 during exposure to chronic hypoxia using a knockout mouse model. With the support of the Pediatric Critical Care Scientist Development Program, Dr. Vitali has continued her research examining the effects of hypoxia on the heart and pulmonary vasculature and the pathophysiology of hypoxia-induced pulmonary hypertension. Dr. Vitali's research training has been under the mentorship of Dr. Stella Kourembanas of the Division of Newborn Medicine at Children's. She is now supported by a K-08 Mentored Clinical Scientist Training Award by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute which will support her continued translational research in Dr. Kourembanas' laboratory. She is currently investigating the role of hypoxia-induced pulmonary inflammation in the development of pulmonary hypertension.

Dr. Vitali's other research interests focus on optimizing study design for case-control studies of genetic basis of critical illness. Dr. Vitali's mentor for this work is Dr. Adrienne Randolph of the Division of Critical Care Medicine.

  • Vitali SH, Camerota AJ, Arnold JH. Anesthesia and Analgesia in the Neonate, in Avery's Neonatology, Pathophysiology and Management of the Newborn, Sixth Ed., MacDonald MG, Seshia MMK, Mullett MD (eds.). Philadephia: Lippincott Williams and Wilkins, 2005.

  • Vitali SH, Mitsialis SA, Christou H, Kluger M, Liu X, Kourembanas S. Mechanisms of HO-1-mediated Cardiac and Pulmonary Vascular Protection in Chronic Hypoxia: Roles of Carbon Monoxide and Bilirubin. Chest 2005; 128(6 Suppl):578S-579S.

  • Vitali SH, Arnold JH. Bench-to-bedside review: Ventilator strategies to reduce lung injury--lessons from pediatric and neonatal intensive care. Critical Care 2005; 9(2):177-83.

  • Vitali SH, Randolph AG. Assessing the quality of case-control association studies on the genetic basis of sepsis. Pediatr Crit Care Med 2005, 6:S74-77.

Dr. Weinstock's PhD training at the Rockefeller University, surgical training at the University of Pittsburgh and coursework at the Harvard Macy Program and Academy Master Teacher's Course compliment his interests. Dr. Weinstock actively practices Simulation Education as faculty of the Center for Medical Simulation in Cambridge where he teaches courses locally and abroad. His current research interests focus on the development, integration and assessment of simulation-enhanced curricula throughout the Children's Hospital. Current work includes High Fidelity Simulation-enhanced curricula in The Management and Detection of Crisis Events (multidisciplinary team training), ACGME Competency-based Critical Care and Orientation of Rotating Surgical Residents to the Children's Hospital.

  • Weinstock PH, Kappus LJ, Garden A, Burns J. Simulation at the point-of-care: Reduced-cost, in-situ training via a mobile cart. Pediatr Critical Care Medicine 2009. Vol 10. No 2.

  • Weinstock PH, Stanley L, Kleinman ME, Hickey P, Greneir B, Burns JP. Towards a New Paradigm in Hospital-based Pediatric Education: The Development of an On-Site Simulator Program. Pediatric Critical Care Medicine. 2005 Nov;6(6):635-641.
Dr. Wolf has conducted a clinical trial using a bedside imaging technique called Electrical Impedance Tomography on pediatric ICU patients with ARDS ventilated with High Frequency Ventilation as well as with conventional ventilation. Dr. Wolf and his colleagues were able to quantify regional derecruitment and regional lung ventilation in the most critically ill pediatric ICU patients. The promise of monitoring techniques such as EIT is that they will guide lung protective ventilation strategies and allow the clinician to optimize lung recruitment, maintain an open lung, and limit overdistension.

  • Wolf GK, McClain C, Zurakowski D, Dodson B, McManus M: Total phenytoin levels do not predict free phenytoin levels in critically ill children. Pediatric Critical Care Medicine, 2006, Vol. 7, No. 5.

  • Wolf GK, Arnold JH: Electrical Impedance Tomography: ready for prime time? Editorial, Intensive Care Medicine, 2006 June 24.

  • Wolf GK, Arnold JH: Noninvasive assessment of lung volume: respiratory inductance plethysmography and electrical impedance tomography. Review, Crit Care Med. 2005 Mar;33(3 Suppl):163-9.

  • Wolf GK, Arnold JH: Assessment of alveolar recruitment: new approaches. Chapter, Yearbook of Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine, Springer-Verlag, 2005.

  • Wolf GK, Sch?ber JG, Vielhaber H, Life-threatening intoxication in twin neonates following accidental overdose of rectal dimenhydrinate Eur J Ped, Nov. 2002 161(11):632-3.
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