Dr. Dickstein’s major interests of research includes ventricular physiology, right heart function, mechanical assist devices and the impact of surgical interventions on heart function. He has studied many techniques for the characterization of ventricular function, including conductance and 3-D digital sonomicrometry. Dr. Dickstein has also developed computer simulations of the cardiovascular system that are used for both research and teaching. Dr. Dickstein is the Co-director of the first-year medical and dental school course: Science Basic to the Practice of Medicine and Dentistry. This course is a systems-based approach that relates the basic structure of living cells and their essential cellular processes to the normal function of the vital organs; this serves as a foundation for the study of pathophysiology and therapeutics that takes place during the second year.

Dr. Jordan’s main area of research consists of the summarization of large amounts of patient specific, clinical data using artificial intelligence and the distribution of this electronic information using multimedia formats. He believes that caregivers are tremendous consumers of information, requiring updates on patient clinical status, care plans, an test results. However, it is often difficult for them to obtain real-time information that they need in a concise form. He has helped developed a web-base application which permits anesthesiologists to review their operating room assignments and schedule online. Dr. Jordan uses the most up-to-date tools for automatically extracting and summarizing patient demographic information, vital signs, procedures and medications during the perioperative period to provide a better information to caregivers. These briefings are coordinated together by reasoning with dynamically generated temporal and spatial constraints.

Dr. Sun’s research interests involve both the basic science as well as patient-oriented investigations. In the laboratory, she uses a rat model to examine the effect of prenatal cocaine exposure on postnatal sympathetic neural development and cardiovascular function. She employs a variety of techniques in her laboratory studies. They include the use of high fidelity echocardiography in small animals, the use of isolated organ preparations, and the application of immunocytochemical, biochemical, and molecular biological techniques. Her clinical research projects include the study of gender differences in the response of pediatric patients to noxious stimuli, myocardial ischemia and reperfusion and intravenous anesthetic agents.