We are pleased to announce the re-appointment of Dr. Thomas Schricker as Chair, Department of Anesthesia at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences (FMHS).
Dr. Schricker, who is the Wesley Bourne Professor in the Faculty, was appointed Chair in January 2016. Over the course of his first term he has overseen the continued development of Anesthesia’s teaching and research missions, as well as some major achievements in the department. This includes the transition of the Anesthesia residency program into the new Competency by Design curriculum in 2017. In 2019, the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada granted the department a full eight-year accreditation.
Together with the Departments of Anesthesia at the Universities of Ottawa and Queen’s, the Lower and Upper Canada Anesthesia Symposium (LUCAS) was created in 2017. The first virtual event of this CME activity in February 2021 drew more than 400 participants.
The Department also made significant advances in perioperative and pain medicine. In collaboration with the Department of Surgery, members of the Department of Anesthesia built on McGill’s leadership as the first institution in North America to implement Enhanced Recovery after Surgery (ERAS). This includes an innovative perioperative program (POP) to optimize the physical function of patients before surgery (prehabilitation) and improve outcomes postoperatively. In collaboration with the Faculty of Dentistry, an expanded program in Human Pain Genetics has been developed, anchored in a CERC to Dr. Luda Diatchenko, and supported by the recruitment of five new tenure-track researchers. These initiatives have augmented the Department’s research activities and attracted substantial external grant funding.
Other senior recruitments include Dr. Thomas Engelhardt, who joined the Department as Anesthetist-in-Chief and Queen Elizabeth Hospital of Montreal Foundation Chair in Pediatric Anesthesia at the Montreal Children’s Hospital in 2019.
The Department has also expanded its collaborations worldwide with institutions in the United States, South America, and Asia.
During his second term, Dr. Schricker’s goals for the Department of Anesthesia include establishing the Transition into Clinical Practice curriculum at McGill’s Campus Outaouais, providing new graduate training opportunities for Anesthesia residents and students, fostering interactions between basic scientists and clinical research, and continuing to develop young clinician scientists.
Dr. Schricker is a senior scientist at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC). In January this year, he finished a five-year appointment as Anesthesiologist-in-Chief at the MUHC.
Dr. Schricker continues to receive funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) for his studies on the neurotoxic effects of anesthesia and nutritional strategies in critically ill patients. He is a co-investigator on a grant from the American Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation to examine the neuroprotective effects of intranasal insulin in patients undergoing open heart surgery. In the last five years, Dr. Schricker published more than two dozen papers as well as two book chapters adding to an already extensive list of more than 200 scientific publications over the course of his career.
Dr. Schricker completed his MD and PhD at the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg (Germany), followed by a Research Fellowship at Harvard Medical School and a residency in Anesthesia at the University of Ulm (Germany).
Please join us in congratulating Dr. Schricker on the renewal of his appointment and wishing him continued success as Chair.
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Dr. David Eidelman |
Dr. Lesley Fellows |
June 23, 2021