Michael Avidan

Michael S. Avidan, MBBCh, FCA SA, serves as the Dr. Seymour and Rose T. Brown Professor of Anesthesiology and Head of the Department of Anesthesiology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis within the field of Medicine. Appointed department head in 2019, he also acts as anesthesiologist-in-chief at Barnes-Jewish Hospital. Avidan has been a faculty member since 2001, achieving full professorship in 2011. He previously served as director of the Division of Clinical and Translational Research, director of the Infrastructure for Quality Improvement, Research and Informatics, co-director of the Anesthesiology Postdoctoral Research Training Program, and co-director of the Center for Perioperative Mental Health. Born in South Africa, he earned his MBBCh from the University of Witwatersrand in 1991, completed residency in anesthesiology and intensive care there in 1996, obtained a Diploma in Anaesthesia from the South African College of Medicine in 1994, and completed a fellowship in cardiothoracic anesthesiology and adult intensive care at King's College Hospital in the United Kingdom in 2000.

Avidan's research centers on perioperative outcomes, including large clinical trials investigating the prevention of intraoperative awareness, postoperative neurologic complications, and delirium. Between 2006 and 2012, he led three large multicenter clinical trials, with findings published in two highly cited papers in the New England Journal of Medicine, notably 'Prevention of Intraoperative Awareness in a High-Risk Surgical Population' (2011, 746 citations). He also led an international multicenter trial on low-dose ketamine during surgery, published in The Lancet. Highly cited publications include 'Anesthesia Awareness and the Bispectral Index' (2008, 1261 citations) and 'Elective Surgery Cancellations Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic: Global Predictive Modelling to Inform Surgical Recovery Plans' (2020, 1767 citations). Currently, he is implementing a telemedicine 'control tower' using artificial intelligence and machine learning to monitor anesthesia care. Avidan has received numerous awards for medical education, including the Samuel R. Goldstein Leadership Award in Medical Student Education in 2007, and was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2023. He is president of the Association of University Anesthesiologists, a trustee of the International Anesthesia Research Society, and a board member and editor of the British Journal of Anaesthesia. His department ranks first in NIH funding for anesthesiology.

Professional Email: avidanm@wustl.edu