Welcome Message from the Chair

The Department of Anesthesiology at Montefiore Einstein is dedicated to advancing the fields of medicine and surgery. As a partner across the health system, particularly in perioperative and periprocedural care, we are in a unique position to align efforts and make the system more effective.

We are a hub for integrated care. We collaborate with surgery and medicine to ensure equitable care is provided consistently and effectively. We ensure good data-based decisions are made every day in the OR, the ICU, the Pain clinic, and the procedural suites of medicine. And we help patients get the treatment that best serves their needs.

Through research and innovation, Montefiore Einstein Anesthesiology creates and implements new science of perioperative medicine. Through mentorship, intensive research training and education, we are developing future leaders in research. We support our researchers at every stage of their process, from idea generation through study completion and publication.

Consistent with this goal, our Anesthesiology faculty and trainees are actively involved in the execution and leadership of a wide array of ongoing clinical research quality improvement projects.

Montefiore Einstein Anesthesiology 2022 Highlights

Our 2022 highlights document the remarkable innovations in research, treatment, and care that we made this year.

95,000+

procedures conducted under anesthesia

40,545

surgeries and procedures with general anesthesia administered across MMC

16,650+

patients visits at the Montefiore Multidisciplinary Pain Program

See why 2022 was a remarkable year for our department

View Highlights

Learn more about our Residency Program

Our Vision: Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

With a proud history of diversity and inclusivity, the Anesthesiology Department at Montefiore-Einstein is expanding on our already progressive platform by leading and modeling inclusion and equity in all that we do. Above all, we value merit and respect across all team members and have recently introduced new organizational practices to ensure our continued success:

• Creation of a needs assessment survey to “take the pulse” of the department on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI)
• Appointment of a Diversity Officer
• Implementation of a departmental DEI Committee
• Updated DEI curriculum for residents created by vetted faculty: Drs. Tracey Straker, Vilma Joseph, Alexandra Bastien, Jerry Chao, Elizabeth Vue, Terry Ann Chambers, Sujatha Ramachandran, Steven Diaz, and Archiebald Johnson
• Holistic approach to residency interviews: de-identifying the applications through eliminating photos and demographics, and having all interviewers take the IAT (Implicit Bias Association Test)

Spearheaded by the interdepartmental team of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, future initiatives include: IAT for leadership and faculty, DEI workshop series for faculty, more community outreach projects within the Department, and a larger national presence.

Research

At the Department of Anesthesiology, research is at the heart of developing the future of state-of-the-art, high-quality perioperative anesthesiology, pain management, and critical care of our patients.

Through advanced clinical and lab-based research, our teams across Montefiore and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine use findings and knowledge to inform decisions in clinical operations, education, and quality improvement.

Our national and international collaborations further enable us to contribute to the progress in perioperative medicine globally – through multicentric studies generalizable to patients who present in hospitals anywhere in the world for a surgical procedure or with a critical illness that requires immediate treatment.

Our clinical research is the direct consequence of the discussions of our colleagues in the operating room and in the intensive care unit. Primary strategies of this research include the generation and analysis of highly granular pharmaco-physiological patient data to understand the effects of new medications on the recovery from surgery or critical illness. We then regroup, validate, and utilize available healthcare record data from more than 1 million patients who have had surgery at Montefiore or in one of our collaborating healthcare networks. This powerful information helps us identify rare complications – and is the foundation for individualized perioperative treatment. We then confirm results in our prospective clinical studies to verify and improve effectiveness and implementation of treatment strategies identified as promising in retrospective studies.

Learn more about our research

Executive Leadership Board

Matthias Eikermann, MD, PhD

Chair, Department of Anesthesiology
Professor, Department of Anesthesiology

Tracey Straker, MD, MS, MPH, CBA

Vice Chair of Clinical Operations
Director of General Anesthesia
Professor, Department of Anesthesiology

Jonathan Leff, MD

Director, Cardiothoracic Anesthesiology
Vice Chair of Professional Affairs
Professor, Department of Anesthesiology

Sujatha Ramachandran, MD, ME

Vice Chair of Education
Professor, Department of Anesthesiology

Naum Shaparin, MD, MBA

Vice Chair of Business Affairs
Director of Pain Services
Professor, Department of Anesthesiology

Philipp J. Fassbender, MD

Vice Chair of Perioperative Medicine
Associate Professor, Department of Anesthesiology

Jason Hallick, MHS

Unified Administrator
Department of Anesthesiology