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Our Group

E. Wesley Ely, MD, MPH
Professor of Medicine and Critical Care
Associate Director of Aging Research, VA GRECC

Dr. E. Wesley Ely, MD, MPH is a subspecialist in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine with a focus in Geriatrics, who conducts patient-oriented, health services research as a Professor of Medicine at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa and Summa Cum Laude from Tulane University and earned his medical degree from Tulane University School of Medicine and master's in public health degree from the Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in New Orleans, Louisiana. There he was elected to Alpha Omega Alpha (AOA) medical honors society. Dr. Ely's research has focused on improving the care and outcomes of critically ill patients with severe sepsis and respiratory failure, with special emphasis on the problems facing older patients in the ICU (e.g., weaning from mechanical ventilation, delirium in the ICU, neuropsychological and functional deficits post ICU care). He was elected to membership in the American Society of Clinical Investigation (ASCI) and serves as the Associate Director of Aging Research for the VA Tennessee Valley Geriatric Research and Education Clinical Center (GRECC).

As the founder of the Vanderbilt ICU Delirium and Cognitive Impairment Study Group, he currently serves as the principal investigator for the Coordinating Center's ongoing clinical trials in sedation and delirium and post-ICU cognitive impairment. Dr. Ely designs and leads a team of investigators in conducting both large cohort studies and randomized controlled clinical trials seeking both better understanding and management of critically ill patients in the ICU. Among other studies, Dr. Ely is currently the principal investigator of two large NIH-sponsored and VA-sponsored cohort investigations in ICU patients, with a focus on delirium and sedative/analgesic drug exposure and acquired cognitive and functional impairment in survivors of the critical illness. He has written or co-authored more than 250 articles, book chapters and editorials. In May 2012, Dr. Ely was awarded with the 2012 Grant W. Liddle Award for Outstanding Contributions to Research; an award granted once every two years to one person at Vanderbilt Medical Center selected from all departments by an independent committee.

For more details of his work, please contact Stephanie Hamilton for a copy of his current Curriculum Vitae. He is especially thankful to have the privilege of working with such a talented and inter-disciplinary team of professionals from dozens of different training backgrounds to conduct this research in such an important public health domain. Importantly, he is married to Dr. Kim Ely, a surgical pathologist at Vanderbilt (herself a graduate of The Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Tulane University School of Medicine and also a member of AOA), with whom he has 3 lovely daughters who are together the pride of his life.

 

Contact Information

 

Assistant
Stephanie Hamilton


 

Site Principal Investigators

Timothy D. Girard, MD, MSCI
Assistant Professor of Medicine

James C. Jackson, PsyD
Assistant Professor of Medicine

Pratik Pandharipande, MD, MSCI
Associate Professor of Anesthesiology and Critical Care

E. Wesley Ely,MD, MPH
Professor of Medicine and Critical Care
Associate Director of Aging Research, VA GRECC

Senior Advisors

Gordon R. Bernard, MD
Associate Vice Chancellor for Research

Robert S. Dittus, MD, MPH
Div Chief Gen Medicine, Director GRECC

Research Coordinators

Leanne Boehm, MSN, RN, ACNS-BC
Critical Care Research Nurse

Joyce Okahashi, RN
Critical Care Research Nurse

Cayce Strength, RN, BSN
Critical Care Research Nurse

Brenda Truman Pun, RN, MSN, ACNP
Acute Care Nurse Practitioner
Program Clinical Manager

Aimee Hoskins, RN, BSN
Research Nurse

Anesthesiology

Christopher G. Hughes, MD
Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine

Elizabeth Card, RN, CPAN, CCRP
Research Nurse IV

Neuropsychology

Sharon M. Gordon, PsyD
Geriatric Neuropsychology, GRECC

Amy Lipsey Kiehl, MA, LPC-MHSP
Research Coordinator

Hillary Warrington, MS
Research Analyst II

Lindsay Anderson, MSW
Research Analyst III

Sleep

Paula Watson, MD
Pulmonary & Critical Care Medicine

Beth Malow, MD, MS
Associate Professor of Neurology

Neuroimaging

John Gore, PhD
Neuroimaging, FMRI, Director of VUIIS

Baxter Rogers, PhD
Physicist

Psychiatry

Stephan Heckers, MD, MSc
Psychiatry Department Chair

D. Catherine Fuchs, MD
Pediatric Psychiatry

Emergency Department

Jin H. Han, MD, MSC
Assistant Professor

Pediatric Delirium

Ty Berutti, MD, MS, MS
Assistant Professor, Pediatric Critical Care

Heidi Smith, MD, MSCI, FAAP
Pediatric Intensive Care

Emily Brink, RN, BSN
Research Nurse III

Biostatisticians

Ayumi Shintani PhD, MPH
Chief ICU Delirium Biostatistician

Amy J. Graves, SM, MPH
Analyst, Biostatistics

Jennifer Thompson, MPH
Analyst, Biostatistics

Theodore Speroff, PhD
Psychometrics, Statistician, GRECC

Research Fellows

Alessandro Morandi, MD
Geriatrician & Research Fellow

Nathan E. Brummel, MD
Clinical Fellow in the Division of Allergy, Pulmonary and Critical Medicine

ICU Outcomes and Patient Safety

Eduard E. Vasilevskis, M.D.
Hospital Medicine and Center for Health Services Research

Laboratory

Gillian Sills, BS
Research Assistant

Pharmacy

Joanna L. Stollings, PharmD, BCPS
Medical Intensive Care Unit Clinical Pharmacy Specialist

Administrative

Stephanie Hamilton, BA
Administrative Assistant

Bill Pojedinec, BS
Program Administrative Manager

 

 

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