Samuel A. Tisherman, MD

I received my undergraduate degree in Biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1981. I then completed medical school at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in 1985.  I stayed in Pittsburgh and completed a general surgery residency in 1993 and a surgical critical care fellowship in 1994 at the University Health Center of Pittsburgh.

I was a faculty member at the University of Pittsburgh from 1994-2014, where I was promoted to Professor with tenure in the Departments of Critical Care Medicine and Surgery in 2009. I served as Director of the Neurotrauma ICU, Director of the Surgical Critical Care and Acute Care Surgery Fellowships, and Director of the Multidisciplinary Critical Care Training Program. I was awarded membership in the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine Academy of Master Educators.

My research has focused on the management of severe hemorrhagic shock and cardiac arrest, with a special interest in therapeutic hypothermia. Along with Drs. Peter Safar and Pat Kochanek, I have worked on the development of Emergency Preservation and Resuscitation (EPR), a novel approach to the management of the exsanguinating trauma patient utilizing hypothermia to "buy time" for resuscitative surgery. I am currently conducting a clinical trial of EPR with the RA Cowley Shock Trauma Center as the coordinating center for the study.

Within the Center for Critical Care and Trauma Education, we are expanding the educational programs within the Shock Trauma Center and the University of Maryland Medical System. This includes the development of novel simulation programs to train multi-professional teams in the optimal management of the most critically ill and injured patients. With funding from the Department of Defense, we are also studying trauma procedural skill acquisition, retention, and refresher techniques.

hemorrhagic shock, cardiac arrest, therapeutic hypothermia, education, surgical skill, simulation

Bulger EM, May S, Brasel KJ, Schreiber M, Kerby JD, Tisherman SA, Newgard C, Slutsky A, Coimbra R, Emerson S, Minei JP, Bardarson B, Kudenchuk P, Baker A, Christenson J, Idris A, Davis D, Fabian TC, Aufderheide TP, Callaway C, Williams C, Banek J, Vaillancourt C, van Heest R, Sopko G, Hata JS, Hoyt DB, ROC Investigators: Out-of-hospital hypertonic resuscitation following severe traumatic brain injury: a randomized controlled trial. JAMA. 2010;304:1455-64.

Tisherman SA, Alam HB, Chiu WC, Emlet LL, Grossman MD, Luchette FA, Marcolini EG, Mayglothling JA: Surgical critical care training for emergency physicians: Curriculum recommendations. J Amer Coll Surg. 2013;217:954-959. 

Tisherman SA, Schmicker RH, Brasel KJ, Bulger EM, Kerby JD, Minei JP, Powell JL, Reiff DA, Rizoli SB, Schreiber MA: Detailed description of all deaths in both the shock and traumatic brain injury hypertonic saline trials of the resuscitation outcomes consortium. Ann Surg. 2015;261(3):586-90. 

Schreiber MA, Meier EN, Tisherman SA, Kerby J, Newgard C, Brasel K, Egan D, Witham W, Williams C, Daya M, Beeson J, McCully BH, Wheeler S, Kannas D, May S,  McKnight B, Hoyt DB, and the ROC Investigators: A controlled resuscitation strategy is feasible and safe in hypotensive trauma patients: Results of a prospective randomized pilot trial. J Trauma Acute Care Surg. 2015;78(4):687-97. 

MacKenzie CF, Garofalo E, Puche A, Chen H, Pugh K, Shackelford S, Tisherman S, Henry S, Bowyer M, and the Retention and Assessment of Surgical Performance (RASP) Group of Investigators: Performance of vascular exposure and fasciotomy among surgical residents after training and up to 18 months later compared to experts. JAMA Surgery 2017;152(6):1-8.

Tisherman SA, Alam HB, Rhee PM, Scalea TM, Drabek T, Forsythe RM, Kochanek PM: Development of the Emergency Preservation and Resuscitation for Cardiac Arrest from Trauma (EPR-CAT) clinical trial. J Trauma Acute Care Surg 2017;83:803-809.

Tisherman SA, Spevetz A, Blooser SA, Brown D, Chang C, Efron PA, O’Connor M, Sevransky JE, Wessman BT: A case for change in adult critical care training for physicians in the United States: A white paper developed by the Critical Care as a Specialty Task Force of the Society of Critical Care Medicine. Crit Care Med 2018;46:1577-1584. PMID: 30015669

Mackenzie CF, Bowyer MW, Henry S, Tisherman SA, Puche A, Chen H, Shalin V, Pugh K, Garofalo E, Shackelford SA for the Retention and Assessment of Surgical Performance (RASP) Group. Cadaver-based trauma procedural skills training: Skills retention 30 months later among practicing surgeons in comparison to experts or more recently trained residents. J Amer Coll Surg 2018;227(2):270-279.

Talley DA, Dunlap E, Silverman D, Katzer S, Huffines M, Dove C, Anders M, Galvagno SM, Tisherman SA: Improving postoperative handoff in a surgical intensive care unit. Crit Care Nurse. 2019;39(5):e13-e21.

Manning JE, Rasmussen TE, Tisherman SA, Cannon JW: Emerging hemorrhage control and resuscitation strategies in trauma: Endovascular to extracorporeal. J Trauma Acute Care Surg. 2020;89:S50-58.

Morris NA, Chang W-T, Tabatabai A, Gutierrez C, Phipps M, Lerner DP, Bates J, Tisherman S: Development of simulated cases of neurological emergencies: Content evidence and response process. Neurocrit Care, 2021;35(2):389-396. 

Tabatabai A, Greenwood JC, Lantry JH 3rd, Levine AR, Shah NG, Chiu WC, Morris NA, Chow JH, Tisherman SA, McCurdy MT: Maryland.CCProject.com: 7-Year follow up of an asynchronous multidisciplinary critical care curriculum. ATS Sch 2021;2:224-235.

Moran B, Nguyen A, Major E, Kufera JA, Tisherman SA, Diaz J: Pre-operative fluid resuscitation in the emergency general surgery septic patient: does it really matter? BMC Emerg Med 2021;21:86.

John PR, Tisherman SA, Truog RD: Do not resuscitate in the operating room: A misconstrued paradox? J Amer Coll Surg 2022;234(5):953-957. PMID: 35426410

Silverman H, Wilson T, Tisherman S, Kheirbek R, Mukherjee T, Tabatabai A, McQuillan K, Hausladen R, Davis-Gilbert M, Cho E, Bouchard K, Dove S, Landon J, Zimmer M: Ethical decision-making climate, moral distress, and intention to leave among ICU professionals in a tertiary academic hospital center. BMC Med Ethics. 2022;23(1):45.