We are proud to share that our department has been awarded a five-year R01 grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH)/National Institute on Aging (NIA) for the research project "Real-World and Innovative Multimodal Prediction and Prevention of Postoperative Mortality and Multi-Morbidity."
This work will be led by principal investigator Senthil Sadhasivam, MD, MPH, MBA, FASA, Executive Vice Chair for Clinical Quality, Patient Safety, and Clinical Research in our department and Associate Dean for Perioperative Research, UPMC Endowed Chair in Anesthesiology Research Excellence, and Director of Perioperative Research and the Perioperative Genomics Program in the University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) School of Medicine.
The project’s multidisciplinary co-investigators include Stephen A. Esper, MD, MBA; Kimberly Howard-Quijano, MD, MS, FASE; Hsing-Hua Sylvia Lin, MS, PhD; and Kathirvel Subramaniam, MD, MPH, FASE, from our department; Ibrahim Sultan, MD (Pitt Cardiothoracic Surgery); Neelesh K. Nadkarni, MD, PhD, FRCPC (Pitt Geriatric Medicine); Parthasarathy D. Thirumala, MD (Pitt Neurological Surgery); Rebecca B. Price, PhD (Pitt Psychiatry); Balachundhar Subramaniam, MD, MPH, FASA (Beth Isreal Deaconess Medical Center, Anesthesiology); and Michelle Humeidan, MD, PhD (The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, Anesthesiology).
The project will focus on 1,000 elderly cardiac and vascular surgical patients, a population at increased risk for postoperative complications including mortality, delirium, cognitive decline, and major cardiac or cerebrovascular events. The study will combine data-driven risk prediction tools with multimodal perioperative interventions such as preoperative optimization, cognitive training, behavioral therapy, and physical exercise, prehabilitation, and proactive intraoperative intervention strategies to reduce postoperative mortality, stroke, myocardial infarction, cognitive decline, dementia, and other adverse outcomes. Through longitudinal clinical trials, the investigators aim to evaluate the effectiveness of these interventions in improving both short- and long-term outcomes in this high-risk population.
This research is an important step towards developing more effective, proactive, risk-mitigating, personalized, and evidence-based perioperative care models for older adults undergoing high-risk elective cardiac and vascular surgery in partnership with anesthesiologists, surgeons, and our Center for Perioperative Care and perioperative care team. Congratulations to the investigators!