Mission
The Department's mission encompasses education and research as well as patient care and administration.
The standard for the department has excellence in:
- Clinical Care: Deliver humane, state of the art care in all aspects of perioperative medicine. Patient safety is always our primary goal.
- Education: We are committed to high quality education of residents, medical students, faculty, and community physicians in an environment of innovation and scholarship.
- Research: We foster an environment that supports cutting-edge research leading to the advancement of our department, our medical school audience, and our specialty.
- Leadership: We are active partners in the administration of our medical center, and actively promote leadership development within the department through education and mentorship.
- Quality of Life: We regard a good work/life balance as essential to our success.
To achieve excellence in all areas of our department, and to promote a collegial cohesive work environment, the department strives to build interpersonal relationships that promote an environment of creativity, inquiry, and study. Our goal is to provide the best patient care in a collegial cohesive work environment that is committed to enhancing the quality of life for our patients and members of our department.
History
The Tulane Department of Anesthesiology was founded in 1975 by Robert Kirby, M.D., when the Medical School built a new state of the art hospital for New Orleans. Since that time, the Department has been a lead in clinical care, committed to serving the medical needs of the community, both locally and regionally.Read More
By 1981, Alan Grogono, M.D., came from SUNY Syracuse to take the helm of the Department of Anesthesiology. Grog, as he was known, formalized many aspects of the department by creating a mission statement, instituting a formal lecture schedule, and creating a joint Morbidity & Mortality conference with the Department of Surgery. Grog also created the New Orleans Anesthesia Society, a medical student anesthesia interest group, and coordinated regular Continuing Medical Education (CME) courses and other educational meetings between Tulane and our colleagues at LSU and Ochsner.
The principal focus of the department was excellence in education. A series of talented Residency Coordinators, established principles, generated enthusiasm, and organized clinical rotations to specialist hospitals. During the 1980s the department grew steadily, and, at its peak, there were about eighteen faculty and thirty residents.
In the 1980s, Jeff Mandel, M.D., Grog, and Mr. Steve Garcia implemented the first computer network at Tulane with a number of faculty Apple computers that functioned as the original Tulane email server for years. In 1986, Grog and John Youngberg, M.D., introduced the Mardi Gras Anesthesia Update, a very popular CME refresher course in anesthesia. Six years later, they introduced the New Orleans Anesthesiology Comprehensive Review and, with the help of Girish Moudgil, M.D., attracted nationally recognized speakers to provide educational material for those preparing for their Board Exams. In 1988, Bobby Nossaman, M.D., and Micheal Gold, M.D., opened the first multi-disciplinary pain clinic in the city, and established the first medical student rotations, with lectures and demonstrations. In the meantime, Dr. Ramadhyani and Donald Smith, M.D., set up formal pediatrics rotations and did the first pediatric heart transplant in the state of Louisiana. Smith also expanded and maintained an ever more sophisticated array of anesthesia monitoring with the legendary anesthesia tech Val.
By the mid-90s, Jonathan Jahr, M.D., organized the liver transplant program at Tulane. Dr. Nossaman got the research mission fully operating, yielding numerous publications. As residency director, Nossaman also performed the impressive feat of getting a full, five-year accreditation of the residency program without comment by the Residency Review Committee.
In 1998, Yoogoo Kang, M.D., came from Pittsburgh to help expand Tulane's liver transplant program. Mel Gitlin, M.D., became Interim Chair in 1999 and continued as the Chair in 2002. Near the end of August 2005, greater New Orleans and Tulane experienced a catastrophic disaster when Hurricane Katrina made land fall. Anesthesia residents had to complete their training at a variety of program throughout the US. After Hurricane Katrina in August 2005, the residency program was reduced to 15 residents (previously 30). Charles Fox, M.D. served as interim chair in the immediate aftermath of Katrina. He was followed by Dr. Frank Rosinia, who served as chair during a period of rebuilding from 2007 to 2015. Under his leadership several initiatives were put into place with the goal of broadening the resident educational experiences, including the establishment of the Practice Management Fellowship, the Regional Anesthesia Fellowship, and the resident MBA scholarship program.
Following a national search, in 2016 Dr. Gary Haynes, MD, PhD became the Merryl and Sam Israel Endowed Chair in Anesthesiology. Since joining Tulane the department is focused on aligning the interests of The School of Medicine as it navigates in healthcare. The department is growing with the addition of new faculty and an expanding clinical presence in the New Orleans area.
