Dr. Heyer’s principal research is to elucidate mechanisms of surgical-associated cerebral injury that manifest itself as cerebral dysfunction determined by performance on a battery of neuropsychometric tests. The types of surgery associated with cerebral dysfunction are cardiac operations in which patients undergo cardiopulmonary bypass and vascular operations in which carotid endarterectomy is performed. The immediate goals are to document the incidence of cerebral injury, determine appropriate measures of injury, and postulate mechanisms that produce injury. Subsequently, strategies to ameliorate cerebral injury will be formulated and tested that will involve intraoperative procedures and cerebral protective medications.

Guohua Li, MD, DrPH
M. Finster Professor of Anesthesiology and Epidemiology

Dr. Li’s expertise is in the area of injury epidemiology. His research encompasses innovative research methodology, development of surveillance data systems, and application of epidemiologic and biostatistical techniques in studies of perioperative care, critical care, and emergency care.  He has published extensively on the role of alcohol in injury causation and trauma outcomes, and medical and human factors in aviation crashes.  For his seminal contribution to the decomposition method, the Editorial Board of Epidemiology awarded Dr. Li the Kenneth Rothman Prize in 1999. Dr. Li received the prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship in 2005. 

Dr. Li joined the Department of Anesthesiology at Columbia University in July 2007. As the M. Finster Chair, he is charged with building a center of excellence in health policy and outcomes in anesthesiology and critical care, mentoring junior faculty and clinical research fellows at the Department of Anesthesiology, and playing an active role in research and education programs at the Department of Epidemiology. The center of excellence in health policy and outcomes focuses on several substantive areas relevant to the safety, effectiveness, and efficiency of perioperative care and critical care, including the development of practical tools for measuring risks and clinical outcomes, identification of and intervention on risk factors for adverse outcomes, and examination of the health effects of volatile anesthetics in vulnerable population groups (e.g., children, elderly, and patients with specific comorbidities).        

Dr. Sladen and his colleagues in the ICU, Drs Hugh Playford and Staffan Wahlander, are focussing on two primary areas of research interest: prediction of ICU outcome and pharmacologic organ protection in critically ill patients. Studies are in progress to compare a simple predictor of ICU length of stay with more complex scoring systems, and to evaluate the role of the multiple organ dysfunction score (MODS) in outcome assessment. The analgesic efficacy of the alpha-2 agonist, dexmedetomidine, is being tested in postoperative thoracic surgery patients. The relative renal effects of two dopaminergic agents, dopamine and fenoldopam, are being compared in cardiac surgical patients. In collaboration with Dr HT Lee and his group, a combined laboratory and clinical investigation is being conducted into renal cell apoptosis as a predictor of adverse postoperative renal outcome.