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January 19, 1995

Grenvik honored for Pitt service, contributions to critical care medicine

Ake Grenvik has been named Distinguished Service Professor in Critical Care Medicine in recognition of his service to Pitt and contributions to developing critical care medicine worldwide.

This is the first such distinguished service professorship for critical medicine in the United States.

In his honor, the Ake and Inger Grenvik Critical Care Lectureship has been endowed through contributions from corporations, colleagues, alumni and friends. The series' first presentation will be held Jan. 24 at 1 p.m. in Scaife Hall lecture room 5. Tim Buchman, professor of surgery and section head for trauma, burns and surgical critical care at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, will speak on the molecular consequences of circulatory shock.

"Dr. Grenvik is a pivotal leader in the evolution of critical care as an interdisciplinary field and one of the great men in American medicine," said Peter M. Winter, chairperson of the anesthesiology and critical care medicine department at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC). "His leadership in training and example in practice have saved many lives and established the principles of the subspecialty of critical care. This lectureship will sponsor an annual presentation by an esteemed scholar in critical care medicine, who exemplifies the high standards of research education and patient care established by Dr. Grenvik." A native of Sweden, Grenvik joined the University faculty in 1963 and is a professor of anesthesiology/critical care medicine, medicine and surgery. He also has directed the multidisciplinary critical care training program, the first and largest such program in the world.

An authority on the bioethics of critical care medicine, Grenvik has made many contributions in transplantation ethics, informed consent, care of the terminally ill, and the definition of brain death. He chairs UPMC's ethics panel. In addition, his research and scientific writing encompass acute medicine, ICI administration and physician education.


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