Critical care

Andreas Theodorou, MD, and Hillary Franke, MD, are researching patient safety and quality of patient care in pediatrics and pediatric critical care. They are interested in medication safety and high-alert medications (medications with the highest risk of causing injury when misused) in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU). Dr. Theodorou has studied the type of medication errors that occur in the critical care setting. Dr. Franke has developed a list of PICU-specific high-alert medications, and will be conducting a quantitative analysis of medication harm versus clinician perceptions. This information will help direct medication safety initiatives. Dr. Theodorou and other members of the pediatric critical care section work with Dr. Leslie Boyer in investigating new antivenom for both scorpion stings and and rattlesnate bites.

Marc Berg, MD, investigates cardiac arrest and CPR. Collaborating with the UA Sarver Heart Center, his team has gained international acclaim for ground breaking work on CCR (cardiocerebral resuscitation) and chest compression-only CPR. Dr. Berg is also interested in CPR performance and ventricular fibrillation in children, and has published in medical journals about the science of determining the optimal dose for electical defibrillation--how much energy is the right amount for shocking a child out of ventricular fibrillation or cardiac arrest.

Mark Witten, PhD, and Simon Wong, MD, investigate inhalation toxicology of gases and airborn pollutants, and the pathogenesis of acute respiratory distress syndrome. Recently, they have researched how jet fuel fumes affects neurobehavior and neurotransmitter levels in animal models.