An announcement from Michael S. Avidan, MBBCh, FCASA, Dr. Seymour, Head of the Department of Anesthesiology.
It is my great privilege and pleasure to announce that Dr. Anne Drewry, in addition to her current role as Division Chief of Critical Care, will be appointed as a Vice Chair in Washington University’s Department of Anesthesiology, effective July 1st, 2021.
Over the last two years, Dr. Drewry’s role has evolved and her responsibility has expanded considerably within the Anesthesiology Department, critical care, BJH, and BJC HealthCare. Dr. Drewry, and other leaders in critical care, including her predecessor Dr. Boyle, have worked closely with hospital presidents and other key stakeholders across BJC to forge an impressive and durable critical care infrastructure spanning much of the BJC network. With Dr. Drewry as a key protagonist, there has been a successful transformation in critical care at a system level leading to dissemination and implementation of best evidence, robust quality improvement programs, and coordinated delivery of critical care services. The net result has been a marked enhancement in care for some of the most vulnerable and high acuity patients in our community, and a concomitant improvement in patient outcomes.
The leadership Dr. Drewry demonstrated during the COVID-19 pandemic was of inestimable value to Washington University, BJC HealthCare, and especially to critically ill patients across multiple health system organizations. With the pandemic, Anesthesiology Critical Care was asked to rapidly increase its coverage by 40%, up to 200 ICU beds system-wide. While this was incredibly onerous, it was accomplished smoothly thanks to the incredible dedication of the critical care clinicians, and the exemplary leadership displayed by Dr. Drewry and other leaders in Critical Care. It is important to emphasize that Dr. Drewry played an important leadership role across the whole system during the COVID-19 pandemic, and her contributions in the most impactful healthcare crisis of our generation are broadly recognized.
Dr. Drewry is currently an Associate Professor in Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine at Washington University’s School of Medicine. She is an outstanding, highly respected clinical and academic intensive care physician and anesthesiologist. Dr. Drewry took the reins as the leader of Anesthesiology Critical Care two years ago from Dr. Boyle and has overseen remarkable growth in both telemedicine intensive care (currently spanning 266 ICU beds) and ‘boots-on the ground’ critical care across almost all the hospitals in BJC. Dr. Drewry has also shepherded substantial growth in critical care faculty as well as advanced practice provider (APP) staffing in critical care. Furthermore, the multi-disciplinary critical care fellowship is outstanding and trains many physician leaders in critical care. Similarly, the APP training program, which is strongly supported by Dr. Drewry, continues to train world-class APP clinicians. In general Dr. Drewry is greatly appreciated for her mentorship and her advocacy for all the dedicated and multi-disciplinary critical care clinicians. She has a strong commitment to building diverse, multi-disciplinary teams with a shared vision for equity, excellence, and collaboration. Furthermore, she is recognized for her accomplishments in sepsis-related research and has particular expertise in the area of temperature-related outcomes in sepsis.
Dr. Drewry completed her undergraduate degree at Yale, and her medical student training at Washington University School of Medicine. She trained as an anesthesiologist at the Massachusetts General Hospital and then specialized in critical care here at Washington University School of Medicine. Following her clinical training, she also received advanced research training as a KL2 and K23 scholar under the auspices of the Institute of Clinical and Translational Science and the National Institutes for Health. She also successfully completed a Master’s of Science in Clinical Investigation.
The members of the Washington University and BJC HealthCare communities are deeply indebted to Dr. Drewry for her indefatigable and exemplary leadership that she has displayed specifically during the COVID-19 pandemic and generally in supporting the critical care enterprise across the BJC system. We are all excited about Dr. Drewry agreeing to serve as a Vice Chair in Anesthesiology. We are committed to striving with her to accomplish our shared goals of excellence in clinical care and service of society; scientific advancement and knowledge generation; training tomorrow’s leaders; professional growth and development; and building a collaborative, diverse, equitable, and inclusive culture. Dr. Drewry will work closely with other senior leaders in the Anesthesiology Department and with institutional leaders in BJC and Washington University School of Medicine broadly.
Please join me in congratulating Dr. Drewry for this recognition of her immense contributions and this exciting additional leadership opportunity.
With very warm wishes,
Michael
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