In this special episode, Dr. Jed Wolpaw, host of the ACCRAC podcast, interviews Dr. Aditee Ambardekar, Chair of the Review Committee at the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), and Dr. Douglas Bacon, Chair of the Department of Anesthesiology at the University of Mississippi Medical Center and historian of anesthesiology, live from ANESTHESIOLOGY 2021. Listen in to this wide-ranging conversation as Dr. Wolpaw and the live audience ask Drs. Ambardekar and Bacon about the role of an ACGME Chair, World War II anesthesia’s impact on the specialty, maintaining emotional wellbeing, what history can teach us about anesthesia today, imposter syndrome, and more. Recorded October 2021.
Aditee Parag Ambardekar, MD, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Management at UT Southwestern Medical Center, where she serves as the Residency Program Director and holds the department’s Distinguished Teaching Professorship. She practices clinically at Parkland Hospital and Children’s Medical Center, Dallas, where she serves as the Director of Burn Anesthesia. She also sits as the Chair of the Review Committee at the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) and as an oral board examiner for the American Board of Anesthesiology. Dr. Ambardekar’s research interest includes pediatric burn anesthesia, medical education, and simulation-based education
Dr. Ambardekar earned her medical degree at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. She completed a residency in anesthesiology at the University of Pennsylvania and completed pediatric anesthesiology fellowship at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
Douglas R. Bacon, MD, MA, is Professor and Chair of the Department of Anesthesiology at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. Dr. Bacon has practiced in a variety of academic settings including SUNY Buffalo, the VA, the Mayo Clinic in Rochester Minnesota, and as Chair of the Department of Anesthesiology at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. His research interests focus on the organizational history of anesthesiology in the first half of the twentieth century.
Dr. Bacon’s bibliography includes over eighty peer reviewed publications, five books, thirty-eight book chapters, and numerous other publications. He was awarded the 2012 Laureate in the History of Anesthesiology by the Wood Library-Museum and served as editor of the American Society of Anesthesiology’s Newsletter and as Editor-In-Chief of the peer reviewed Journal of Clinical Anesthesia. He was the Chair of the Publications Committee for the World Federation of Societies of Anesthesiologists and Secretary-Treasurer of the WLM. Currently, Dr. Bacon serves as the Executive Section Editor for History and Book Reviews at Anesthesia and Analgesia and as the Secretary of the Academy of Anesthesiology.
Dr. Bacon earned his medical degree at SUNY at Stony Brook and served his residency in anesthesiology at the SUNY at Buffalo Affiliated Hospitals before becoming a diplomat of the American Board of Anesthesiology. While working as an anesthesiologist at the Roswell Park Cancer Institute, he completed his Master of Arts in History at SUNY Buffalo.
Jed Wolpaw, MD, MEd, is an associate professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in the Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine and the residency program director for the 80-resident training program. He subspecializes in critical care and attends in the surgical ICUs and in the general adult operating rooms. Dr.Wolpaw received the ASA Excellence in Education Award in 2021.
Dr. Wolpaw graduated magna cum laude with a degree in history from Brown University. He then earned a master’s degree in education at Harvard Graduate School of Education and taught high school history. Subsequently he transitioned to medicine, earning his medical degree from the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) School of Medicine, where he also completed his anesthesia residency. He then came to Johns Hopkins for a fellowship in Critical Care Medicine. After completing his fellowship in 2015, Dr. Wolpaw joined the faculty at Johns Hopkins as an assistant professor.
In addition to running the residency program, he co-runs both the university’s anesthesiology clerkship and ICU clerkship. He is the founder and host of Anesthesia and Critical Care Reviews and Commentary (ACCRAC), a podcast focusing on interesting topics in anesthesia and critical care, with more than 50,000 unique listeners each month around the world.
Dr. Wolpaw has received numerous teaching awards including the Charles Beattie Teacher of the Year award twice, the most prestigious teaching award given by his department each year, and the Resident Advocacy Award in recognition of his work advocating for resident well-being. He was chosen as one of the inaugural winners of the ASA/SEA Distinguished Educator Awards, established in 2019 to honor significant contributions to anesthesiology education. Dr. Wolpaw's research interests include resident well-being, asychronous methods of teaching and learning, and improving the way we teach our trainees. He speaks nationally about resident education, feedback, communication and well-being. He is the chair of the resident education committee of the Society for Education in Anesthesia (SEA) and serves on the board of the Association of Anesthesiology Core Program Directors (AACPD). He tweets from the @jwolpaw and @accracpodcast handles.