It is with a mixture of pride and sadness that we bid our friend and colleague Dr. Anshuman Sharma farewell as he leaves Washington University to take up an exciting new leadership opportunity at Benioff Children’s Hospital in San Francisco as Chief for the Division of Pediatric Cardiac Anesthesiology at the University of California, San Francisco.
Professor Anshuman Sharma trained as a physician and anesthesiologist at the prestigious All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New Dehli. He completed his residency at Columbia University and a Pediatric Anesthesiology fellowship at Washington University. He has been a member of Washington University School of Medicine and St. Louis Children’s Hospital since January 1996. In 2006, he completed a Master of Business Administration at the Olin Business School at Washington University.
Dr. Sharma is widely considered to be one of the most outstanding pediatric cardiac anesthesiologists. He has excellent clinical acumen, a wealth of experience, and is always calm and composed, regardless of the acuity of a crisis. He is a sought after teacher, and for many years has served as the director of the pediatric anesthesiology fellowship program.
In 2011, Dr. Sharma was one of the inaugural directors of the Initiative for Quality Improvement, Research, and Informatics (INQUIRI). He helped design and launch the innovative SATISIFY-SOS (Systematic Assessment and Targeted Improvement of Services Following Yearlong Surgical Outcomes Surveys) program, which spearheaded intermediate-term systematic postoperative patient-reported outcomes tracking. In his role as Director of Quality Assessment and Improvement, he led many foundational initiatives, including the residency QA/QI program, and departmental case review and morbidity and mortality.
Dr. Sharma is widely regarded as an expert in QA/QI and has many relevant scientific publications. He is interested in global health and comparing the quality of care and patient well-being in surgical patients after discharge from the hospital in the USA and other countries. Specifically, he is interested in assessing the impact of surgical care and other medical complications on patients’ quality of life after surgery in resource-limited countries such as India and China. His work leverages patient reported outcomes to develop and implement quality improvement programs in perioperative care.
Dr. Sharma has consistently had a positive impact on the pediatric anesthesiology division, the Department of Anesthesiology more broadly, and the medical school and BJC systems. He is an empathetic physician who has touched the lives of thousands of children and pediatric anesthesiology trainees during his time here at Washington University.
He will be sorely missed by many, and we all wish him every success as he embarks on a new and exciting life adventure.
Kelly Chilson, MD
Interim Chief, Division of Pediatric Anesthesiology
Courtney Hardy MD, MBA, FAAP
Vice Chair for Clinical Operations, Department of Anesthesiology
Professor of Anesthesiology, Division of Pediatric Anesthesiology
John McAllister, MD
Clinical Director, Division of Pediatric Anesthesiology
Michael S. Avidan, MBBCh, FCASA
Dr. Seymour and Rose T. Brown Professor of Anesthesiology
Head of the Department of Anesthesiology
Anesthesiologist-in-Chief, Barnes-Jewish Hospital