Seven Current and Former Critical Care Medicine Faculty to Receive Society of Critical Care Medicine’s Highest Honor

PITTSBURGH, Jan. 9, 2012 – Four current and three former University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine faculty are among 20 world-renowned intensivists who are the first to be selected to receive the Society of Critical Care Medicine's highest honorific, Master Critical Care Medicine (MCCM) Fellow, at its annual congress, Feb. 4 to 8, in Houston.

Pitt established the nation's first Department of Critical Care Medicine in 2002, building on a long history of achievement in the field, noted Arthur S. Levine, M.D., senior vice chancellor for the health sciences and dean, School of Medicine.

 “The legacy of Peter Safar, who is being awarded this prestigious honorific posthumously, lives on in the exceptional physician-researchers who make up this inaugural class of inductees,” Dr. Levine said. “Their contributions to medicine have saved countless lives, and they and those they mentor continue to break new ground in understanding and treating the most life-threatening conditions, including sepsis, brain injury and organ dysfunction, as well as gaining insight into the long-term outcomes of critical illness.”

Current critical care faculty who will receive the MCCM Fellow title are: Derek C. Angus, M.D., M.P.H., professor and Mitchell P. Fink Endowed Chair; Patrick M. Kochanek, M.D., professor and vice chairman, and director, Safar Center for Resuscitation Research; Michael R. Pinsky, M.D., professor and vice chair for academic affairs; and Ann Thompson, M.D., professor and vice chair for faculty development, and associate dean, faculty affairs, School of Medicine.

Founding chair of the critical care medicine department Mitchell Fink, M.D., and emeritus professor Ake Grenvik, M.D., Ph.D., also will be honored. Dr. Safar, who established Pitt’s Department of Anesthesiology in 1971, died in 2003.

According to the Society for Critical Care Medicine, the MCCM Fellow designation recognizes members who have been Fellows of Critical Care Medicine for at least five years and have achieved national and international professional prominence due to personal character, leadership, eminence in clinical practice, outstanding contributions to research and education in critical care medicine, or years of exemplary service to the Society of Critical Care Medicine, the American College of Critical Care Medicine, and the field of critical care.