UM SOM Names Dr. Samuel Tisherman as Director of the Division of Critical Care and Trauma Education

Famed Researcher and Educator Brings His Innovative Ideas and Practices to UM SOM

Stephen T. Bartlett, MD, the Peter Angelos Distinguished Professor of Surgery and Chair, Department of Surgery at University of Maryland School of Medicine (UM SOM), and Executive Vice President and Surgeon in Chief for the University of Maryland Medical System, and Thomas M. Scalea, MD, FACS, the Honorable Francis X. Kelly Distinguished Professor of Trauma Surgery at UM SOM, in conjunction with Dean E. Albert Reece, MD, PhD, MBA, announced today that Samuel A. Tisherman, MD, FACS, FCCM, has been appointed as the Director of the Division of Critical Care and Trauma Education at the Program in Trauma at UM SOM.

An internationally recognized researcher and clinician in trauma care, Dr. Tisherman recently joined UM SOM as Professor of Surgery, where he continues his groundbreaking research into trauma care, and his crucial work educating healthcare professionals in critical care and trauma.

Dr. Tisherman is internationally-recognized for developing innovative ways to treat hemorrhagic shock and cardiac arrest, especially using therapeutic hypothermia – temporarily lowering body temperature to around 50 degrees to increase the odds that patients survive otherwise lethal injuries. He has helped develop Emergency Preservation and Resuscitation (EPR), a new approach to treating severe trauma patients. The goal of EPR is to provide surgeons more time for life-saving surgery when every second counts. Dr. Tisherman is now beginning a human clinical study of EPR, and hopes to begin enrollment within several months. His research is a continuation of the pioneering work of Dr. Peter Safar, who helped develop CPR (Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation) and who helped found the first intensive care unit in Baltimore, and that of Dr. R Adams Cowley, the “father of trauma medicine,” who helped found the Shock Trauma Center at UM.

The appointment will enable Dr. Tisherman to continue the extensive educational work from his previous roles at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine where he served as Director of the Multi-disciplinary Critical Care Training Program and was a member of the School’s Academy of Master Educators.

Dr. Tisherman is working to improve training in a range of ways, including upgrading simulation training to make it even more realistic; bringing simulation out of the lab and into patient rooms, allowing medical personnel to train in the setting where they treat; expanding web-based training; partnering with the hospital and insurers to identify areas in which education can improve patient safety; improving critical care education throughout the University of Maryland Medical System; and improving training for critical care and trauma educators.

“Dr. Tisherman has great ideas and endless energy, and he will have a positive effect on how we train people to save lives,” said Dr. Scalea, who is also the Director of the UM SOM Program in Trauma and Physician-in-Chief of the R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center at the UMMC. “We are extremely excited to have him working with us, in the the classroom and the clinic.”

The Center for Critical Care and Trauma Education, which has a 10,000-square-foot medical simulation area with four reconfigurable labs and three adjacent classrooms and debriefing areas, is part of the University of Maryland R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center. Since its inception four decades ago, Shock Trauma has provided world-class educational opportunities for faculty physicians, medical and nursing students, visiting health care professionals, emergency medical personnel and other specialists in the management of critically ill and injured patients.

“Shock Trauma at the University of Maryland School of Medicine has been a leader in trauma and critical care since its founding,” said Dr. Tisherman. “Working at this institution is a perfect fit for me, a dream come true.”

Dr. Tisherman received a BS from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and an MD from the University of Pittsburgh. He completed a general surgery residency and a surgical critical care fellowship at the University of Pittsburgh as well. He was a faculty member at the University of Pittsburgh from 1994-2014, where he eventually became a Professor of Critical Care Medicine and Surgery, as well as Director of the Neurotrauma Intensive Care Unit.

In addition, he is the author of more than 100 peer-reviewed articles, and has given more than 200 local, national and international lectures. Dr. Tisherman has been Chancellor of the American College of Critical Care Medicine and is President-elect for the Surgical Critical Care Program Directors Society.

“Dr. Tisherman is a true innovator in his field,” said Dean Reece, Vice President of Medical Affairs, the University of Maryland and the John Z. and Akiko Bowers Distinguished Professor, University of Maryland School of Medicine. “I know that he will be a shining light at our institution, as both a physician-scientist and an educator.”

Click here to learn how Dr. Tisherman is working  to transform how doctors and nurses are trained.

About the University of Maryland School of Medicine

The University of Maryland School of Medicine was chartered in 1807 and is the first public medical school in the United States and continues today as an innovative leader in accelerating innovation and discovery in medicine. The School of Medicine is the founding school of the University of Maryland and is an integral part of the 11-campus University System of Maryland. Located on the University of Maryland’s Baltimore campus, the School of Medicine works closely with the University of Maryland Medical Center and Medical System to provide a research-intensive, academic and clinically based education. With 43 academic departments, centers and institutes and a faculty of more than 3,000 physicians and research scientists plus more than $400 million in extramural funding, the School is regarded as one of the leading biomedical research institutions in the U.S. with top-tier faculty and programs in cancer, brain science, surgery and transplantation, trauma and emergency medicine, vaccine development and human genomics, among other centers of excellence. The School is not only concerned with the health of the citizens of Maryland and the nation, but also has a global presence, with research and treatment facilities in more than 35 countries around the world. http://medschool.umaryland.edu/