Message From Dr. Scott Reeves

The Department of Anesthesia's “can-do” mentality along with all that our beautiful city has to offer creates a wonderful environment in which to train, work and live.

Read The Chair's Message

Endowed Chairs

What is an Endowed Chair?

An endowed chair is an elite faculty appointment that carries with it a stable source of funding to support the chair-holder’s work. It is the most prestigious honor a university can confer upon a faculty member. A chair is usually established by a pool of philanthropically provided funds totaling $1 million, which is invested in a professionally managed fund. The principle, or “corpus,” remains in this fund, generating interest income that is used to attract and support the work of a leading scientist and/or educator in perpetuity.

Benefits of an Endowed Chair:

  • Enables MUSC to attract and retain the best educators in the country.
  • Provides a permanent, stable source of departmental funding.
  • Establishes the University as a leader in the chairholder’s field.
  • Helps recruit the nation’s top students.
  • Attracts additional research dollars.
  • Establishes strength and perpetuity within a given field of study, promoting continual discovery and understanding.

Endowed Chair Recipients

 John E. Mahaffey, M.D. Endowed Chair – Dr. Scott T. Reeves

A 1954 graduate of the Medical College of South Carolina, Dr. Mahaffey returned to MUSC in 1958 as instructor of anesthesiology and one year later was named acting chairman. In 1959 he was appointed Professor and Chairman of Anesthesiology, a role he held for 33 years until his retirement in 1992.

In addition to expanding the anesthesiology program, Dr. Mahaffey advanced the field through his service as the President of the South Carolina Society of Anesthesiologists and on the board of the American Society of Anesthesiologists, as well as several state and national committees of scientific and educational organizations.

In recognition of his contributions to the field of anesthesiology and to promote continued growth, MUSC and Dr. Mahaffey’s colleagues recognized him with the highest award a university can bestow upon a faculty member -- an endowed chair, named in his honor.

Dr. Scott T. Reeves serves as Chairman of the Department of Anesthesia and Perioperative Medicine, a position he has held since 2006.  For the College of Medicine, he is Senior Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs.  He recently served a one-year term as Interim Chief Physician Executive for MUSC Health and Chief Physician Executive for MUSC Physicians.  He holds the rank of Professor with Tenure. 

Dr. Reeves graduated with honors from Clemson University.  He earned his medical degree from the Medical University of South Carolina and completed both an internal medicine and anesthesiology residency at Baylor College of Medicine.  He is board certified in anesthesiology, pediatric anesthesiology and transesophageal echocardiography.  He is a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology and the American Society of Echocardiography and is listed in Who’s Who in America.  He received his Master of Business Administration from the University of Tennessee.

Dr. Reeves is a Past President of MUSC Physicians, having also served as MUSCP Treasurer and an at-large board member representing the general faculty of MUSCP.  His involvement with numerous professional associations includes service on boards, committees and officerships, including Past President of the Society of Cardiovascular Anesthesiologists.  He has published extensively in numerous professional journals, contributed book chapters and authored/co‑authored textbooks, which have been translated into five languages.  His lectures and presentations have been given regionally, nationally and internationally, including five continents.  His research, primarily in the areas of cardiac anesthesia and transesophageal echocardiography, includes extramural and intramural funding. 

Jerry G. Reves, M.D. Endowed Chair in Clinical Anesthesia Research – Dr. Sylvia Wilson

Dr. Sylvia WilsonA pioneer clinical investigator who helped launch the cardiac anesthesiology subspecialty, Dr. Reves served as the second President for the Society of Cardiovascular Anesthesiologists (1979-1980,) and received that organization's outstanding service award in 2006.  Dr. Reves has been elected to numerous medical boards, societies, and organizations such as the Association of University Anesthetists, the Association of Cardiac Anesthesiologists, the International Anesthesia Research Society and the Cardiac Surgery and Anesthesia Council of the American Heart Association. He was a co-founder of the Duke Heart Center and served as its first director from 1987 to 1997.  He also served as Chairman of the Department of Anesthesiology, at Duke from 1991 until 2001 when he became Dean of the College of Medicine and Vice President for Medical Affairs of the Medical University of South Carolina until his retirement in 2010. 

Dr. Reves is nationally recognized for his contributions to anesthesia clinical research. His team introduced midazolam and esmolol into clinical practice, and his research groups have focused on aging and cognition after cardiac surgery.  He has authored or edited 15 books, and his work has been published in over 300 scientific publications. 

Dr. Sylvia Wilson was nominated and appointed as the inaugural Dr. Jerry G. Reves Endowed Chair for Research in the Department of Anesthesia and Perioperative Medicine in 2019.

Dr. Wilson completed her undergraduate and medical education at the University of Florida.  She then completed her residency training in anesthesiology at the The University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill followed by a regional and acute pain management fellowship at the University of Pittsburgh.  Dr. Wilson joined the anesthesia faculty at MUSC in 2010.

Since her arrival at MUSC, Dr Wilson has served our department, the medical school, and the anesthesia community. In the department, she has been Division Chief for Regional Anesthesia (2011-2016 and 2020-current), Medical Director for ambulatory surgery (2015-2020), and creator of the regional anesthesia fellowship where she still serves as fellowship director (2015-current).  Concurrently, she has mentored medical students, residents, graduate students, and fellows within and outside our department. Outside of MUSC, Dr. Wilson serves as both a question writer and an oral board examiner for the American Board of Anesthesiology and has taught workshops and lectured nationally and internationally on topics related to acute pain and regional anesthesia. 

Rather than these accolades, Dr. Wilson was nominated for the Dr. JG Reves Endowed Chair for Research because of her research.  She first became active in research as an undergraduate at the University of Florida working in the Department of Pharmacology. She has published over 50 peer-reviewed articles and editorials, 30 abstracts, 16 book chapters, and numerous other non-peer reviewed publications.  She has also edited a textbook and served as a peer reviewer for several anesthesiology journals.  While her initial basic science research focused on various properties of retinal endothelial cells before and after exposure to certain medications, the vast majority of her clinical research has focused on the impact of regional anesthesia and non-opiate analgesics on acute pain management in the perioperative period.

J. G. Reves, M.D. Endowed Chair in Basic Science Anesthesiology Research – Michael Scofield, Ph.D.

Dr. Jerry Reves was a pioneer and clinical investigator who helped launch the subspecialty of cardiac anesthesiology through his initial work in the establishment of midazolam as a cardiac anesthetic and later in his multiple NIH funded clinical trials looking at neuro cognitive decline following cardiac surgery.  He was a co-founder of the Duke Heart Center and served as its first director from 1987 to 1997.  He served as the Chairman of the Department of Anesthesiology at Duke from 1991 to 2001 and Dean of the College of Medicine and Vice President for Medical Affairs at the Medical University of South Carolina from 2001 to 2010.  He has authored or edited fifteen books and has published in over three hundred scientific publications.  It was due to this remarkable body of work that the department endowed this chair in Dr. Reves’ honor. 

Dr. Scofield received his bachelor degree from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and his doctorate from the University of Massachusetts Medical School.  His post-doctorate fellowship was completed at MUSC.  At the completion of his post-doctorate fellowship, he became an Assistant Professor at MUSC with a joint appointment in the Department of Neuroscience, and in 2023 was promoted to Associate Professor as an independent investigator with an established laboratory. 

Both his educational background and academic career have been and continue to be completely focused on biological and biomedical science.  Dr. Scofield’s overall investigative field is addiction research.  Specifically, his research program is focused on understanding how drug exposure produces relapse vulnerability at the circuit and cellular level.  With drug addiction being a serious problem for the specialty of Anesthesiology, his research continues to be of significant relevance to the Department of Anesthesia as well as the Department of Neuroscience

His investigative research has resulted in over forty publications and presentations nationwide at prominent universities and professional associations.  As an academic investigator, his papers significantly impact his field as is documented by his h-index and i10-index.  He has an increasing level of grant support both internally and externally.  His most significant external grant is the R01 funded by the National Institutes of Health/National Institute on Drug Abuse entitled “Nitrergic Interneurons and Cue‑Induced Cocaine Seeking.”  His most significant internal grant is the MUSC COMETS award entitled “Measuring activity and plasticity in cell-type specific, longitudinally-tracked neuronal circuits from the onset of opioid use to dependence.”  Additionally, Dr. Scofield has contributed to MUSC through his service on the Faculty Senate, the Institutional Animal Use and Care Committee as well as relevant research committees within the Department of Anesthesia and the Department of Neuroscience.

Joanne M. Conroy, M.D. Endowed Chair for Education and Leadership Development – Dr. G. J. Guldan

George Guldan

The Joanne M. Conroy M.D. Endowed Chair for Education and Leadership Development ls dedicated to providing anesthesiology professionals, faculty and staff with leadership skills, concentrating on the following areas:

 

 

  • Effective meeting management
  • Creative problem solving
  • Recruiting and motivating others
  • Building consensus
  • Communications and conflict resolution
  • Inspiring purpose, passion and performance
  • Effective advocacy and political action

 

After completing her anesthesiology training at the Medical University of South Carolina, Dr. Conroy joined the faculty in the Department of Anesthesia and Perioperative Medicine (MUSC), where she quickly rose to the ranks of Vice Chair and Chair and then Vice President for Medical Affairs for MUSC and Senior Associate Dean of the College of Medicine.  Her initial leadership roles at MUSC laid the foundation for career advancement:  Executive Vice President of Atlantic Health, Chief Operating Officer/President of Morristown Memorial Hospital; Chief Health Care Officer of the Association of American Medical Colleges; Chief Executive Officer of Lahey Hospital and Medical Center and her present position of Chief Executive Officer and President of Dartmouth-Hitchcock and Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health. 

In many aspects Dr. Guldan’s career is developing in parallel to that of Dr. Conroy.  He completed both his anesthesiology residency and cardiothoracic anesthesiology fellowship at MUSC and then joined the faculty.  As a junior faculty he became involved in our education division, which led to his being named Associate Program Director and then Program Director, a position he has held since 2013.  He oversees our 72‑position residency program, and graduate medical education is his passion.  He is committed to continuing the development of the program to advance it to one of the top programs nationally.

The endowed chair has seven primary objectives.  Dr. Guldan’s accomplishments in these areas are numerous and worthy of highlighting a success factor in each objective:

  • Effective meeting management - Facilitating resident input to the department’s program evaluation committee meetings, ensuring each resident class has a voice in guiding the program forward. Membership in Society for Education in Anesthesia, member-driven organization dedicated to the teaching and development of future anesthesiologists:  attended workshops for evaluating the flipped classroom; using milestones to improve residents and curriculum; developing resident remediation strategies; creating an OR management rotation
  • Creative problem solving - Dr. Guldan has worked with both the hospital and department leadership to meet our OR and ICU staffing challenges during the COVID pandemic and rapid       expansion of the hospital system.  He created a flexible resident system to cover late OR’s at multiple sites on campus allowing the residents to increase their clinical exposure and providing an opportunity for them to make extra income.
  • Recruiting and motivating others -  During Dr. Guldan’s oversight of the residency program, the complement has expanded from 9 positions to 18 positions. Additionally, the assessment of potential applicants has ensured a truly relevant candidate pool with increasing diversity resulting in filling the program to capacity at Match.  Under his direction, the recruitment process has been refined to engage faculty and residents in each interview session, including subspecialty team overviews for the candidates.
  • Building consensus - Dr. Guldan created a resident representative council which meets quarterly to address the specific concerns of residents at each level of training. This group also sits on the program evaluation committee with the program’s faculty to create consensus of all the stake holders on curriculum decisions.
  • Communications and conflict resolution - Inclusive versus exclusive administration:  Acknowledging the success of the educational program and the stellar performance of the residents is contributed to the engagement of the faculty in the overall education process, not solely on the leadership of the Program Director.  Dr. Guldan provides the residents quarterly updates on the program and holds residents’ meetings to discuss challenges and solutions as a unified team.  He also updates the faculty on the program at the departmental faculty meetings.
  • Inspiring purpose, passion and performance -  Under his direction, the residency program has seen improved scoring on the senior in-training exam; integration of all program educational materials into an Anesthesiology education Microsoft Teams page; simulation training, goal-directed therapy in clinical procedures; teaching by flipping the classroom. He   mentors two associate program directors ensuring program stability and continuity as well as their growth as educators. He also leads GME faculty development for the department. 
  • Effective advocacy and political action - Dr. Guldan is an active member of both the American Society of Anesthesiologists and SC Society of Anesthesiologists ensuring patient‑centered, physician-lead care across the US and in our state. Dr. Guldan was named a Fellow of the American Society of Anesthesiologists for his contributions to resident education, research and political advocacy.

Lewis Blackman Endowed Chair – Dr. Catherine Tobin

The Lewis Blackman Endowed Chair Health Sciences South Carolina is named for Lewis Blackman, a 15-year-old South Carolina boy who passed away at the Medical University of South Carolina from an undetected perforated ulcer caused by medication for post-operative pain. This position was made possible by legislation passed in 2002 by the General Assembly, the South Carolina Research Centers of Economic Excellence Act. 

Dr. Tobin received her undergraduate degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and her medical doctorate from MUSC.  She also completed her residency in anesthesiology at MUSC and upon completion, joined the faculty.  She holds the rank of Professor and was recently appointed the Medical Director for the MUSC Simulation Center.  Within MUSC, she has been both the co‑creator and/or lead instructor of MUSC’s moderate sedation simulation course for non‑Anesthesia personnel.  This course is a mandatory, competency-based course for all non-Anesthesia personnel as a requirement for MUHA credentialing and privileging in moderate sedation.  In addition, she was the director of the Maintenance of Certification in Anesthesiology (MOCA) program at the MUSC Simulation Center.  This program was developed to fulfill the American Board of Anesthesiology’s MOCA requirements.  The center at MUSC was one of only approximately twenty centers across the United States.  Additionally, she has been very active in the train-the-trainer Ebola simulation course which she developed in 2020. 

She is a Co-Investigator on two major grants, the first being the CDC funded Simulation Education for Ebola Healthcare Team Competency.  This grant was specifically designed around personal protective equipment (PPE) protocols for Ebola training both within the United States and across the world.  The techniques developed and refined at MUSC were field tested in Uganda where they were reproducible and very successful.  When the COVID pandemic hit, the department and MUSC were able to rapidly switch to using this knowledge to develop courses and videos for training and demonstration of appropriate PPE utilization for the COVID-19 pandemic.  This has resulted in multiple manuscripts being published in the American Journal of Disaster Medicine, Surgical Infections and Education for Health.  You Tube videos of our processes at MUSC were developed and distributed worldwide.  Dr. Tobin was truly an international leader in PPE very early in the COVID pandemic.  She is also lead investigator for the AHRQ OR smart, a medication error reduction grant.  This grant specifically looks at the use of simulation and other modalities to reduce human error within operating and non-operating (NORA) room settings. 

Latha Hebbar, M.D. Endowed Chair in Anesthesiology – Dr. Carlee Clark

Clark, Carlee

The endowed chair was created to recognize the substantial contributions of Dr. Latha Hebbar to the department.  She has frequently been awarded the resident teacher of the year and has dedicated her professional life to the development of the next generation of anesthesiologists.  She has taken her love for resident education and expanded it to include faculty development in her role as the Vice Chair for Faculty Development.  The entire department owes her a debt of gratitude for their personal and professional development.  Without question, she exemplifies what it means to be an academic anesthesiologist, mentor and friend.

A native of India and now a US citizen, Dr. Hebbar earned her medical degree and completed an Anesthesia residency in India followed by training in Anesthetics in the United Kingdom.  Her US medical training began at MUSC in 1994 as a PGY 4 anesthesia resident.  Upon completion of residency at MUSC, she remained here to begin her now 27-year tenure progressing from a basic science research fellow in cardiothoracic anesthesia to Professor and Vice Chair for Faculty Development.

Dr. Hebbar has been an integral part of the various missions of the department, serving as the Residency Program Director, Medical Director of Non-Operating Room Anesthesia, Chair of the Quality Improvement Committee, Chair of the Resident Clinical Competency Committee, Director of Obstetric Anesthesiology and, most importantly, Vice Chair for Faculty Development.  As Vice Chair for Faculty Development, she has promoted and developed a robust departmental faculty mentoring program.  She is the founding faculty member of the College of Medicine’s Anesthesia Interest Group and continues to serve as a mentor for aspiring medical students interested in anesthesiology.  With her clinical interests in obstetric, liver transplantation and neuro-anesthesia, she is well published with over 130 presentations and publications in obstetric, transplant, cardiothoracic, and other prominent anesthesia journals.  She has addressed academic communities at international, national, and regional meetings.  She is an active member of her professional societies and is a contributing author to the American Society of Anesthesiologists Continuing Medical Education publications in both general and obstetric anesthesiology areas.  In 2017, she was named the Claudia Oxner Simmons Endowed Chair in Anesthesiology.

Dr. Carlee Clark received her B.A. degree in Psychology from Miami University and her M.D. degree from the Ohio State University College of Medicine and Public Health.  She completed an internship at Riverside Methodist Hospital, followed by a residency in anesthesiology at Columbia University/New York Presbyterian Hospital, serving as chief resident.  She then completed a fellowship in Critical Care Medicine at Columbia University/New York Presbyterian Hospital.  At the completion of her fellowship, she joined the faculty at MUSC as an Assistant Professor and has now achieved the rank of Professor. 

After a brief acclimation period to MUSC, Dr. Clark immediately began assuming administrative roles within our department, next collaborating with other departments and then within the hospital.  The increasing levels of responsibility led to her two current most significant clinical roles:  Chief of the Anesthesia Integrated Center of Clinical Excellence (ICCE), Vice Chair for Clinical Operations.  Since being named ICCE Chief in 2014, the role has expanded exponentially primarily due to the growth of the Charleston Division and the recent inclusion of the Regional Health Network.  In addition to these major clinical roles, she maintains a heavy clinical practice in the area of critical care medicine with assignments in the cardiovascular intensive care unit and operating rooms. 

While completely fulfilling the missions of clinical care, education and research, Dr.  Clark has contributed in significant roles in the area of administration at all levels: 

  • Global Health Rotation Director
  • Medical Director of the Post Anesthesia Care Unit, Ashley River Tower
  • Medical Director of the Operating Room, Ashley River Tower
  • Associate Chief Medical Officer for Anesthesia Services
  • Chief, Anesthesia Integrated Clinical Center of Excellence
  • Vice Chair for Clinical Operations
  • Society of Critical Care Anesthesiologists – Board of Directors; Chair, Membership Committee
  • American Board of Anesthesiologists Applied Board Examiner

Joseph S. Redding M.D. Endowed Chair in Critical Care Medicine – Dr. Matthew Hulse

Joseph Redding was internationally known as a pioneer in critical care research which led to modern day concepts of cardiopulmonary resuscitation.  He was a dedicated clinician, teacher and investigator who authored over 100 publications.  In honor of his accomplishments, the Joseph S. Redding M.D. Critical Care Fund was established to support the department and the University in their missions of service in patient care, research and education. These funds initially provided support for guest lecturers with expertise in the area of critical care medicine.  The department significantly increased the endowment to create the Joseph S. Redding, M.D. Endowed Chair.

 

Scott T. Reeves, M.D. Endowed Chair in Cardiothoracic and Vascular Anesthesiology – Dr. Alan Finley

The Scott T. Reeves, M.D. Endowed Chair in Cardiothoracic and Vascular Anesthesiology was established in recognition of Dr. Reeves’ thirty years of service to MUSC and eighteen years as Chairman of the Department of Anesthesia and Perioperative Medicine.  He holds the rank of Professor with Tenure. The fields of cardiothoracic anesthesiology and transesophageal echocardiography have been a primary focus of his practice, research and education and have produced funded research, national and international lectures, and over one hundred publications in professional journals, book chapters and over ten textbooks.  His textbook, A Practical Approach to Transesophageal Echocardiography, (now on its fourth edition) has been a world leader in sales and has been translated into Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese and Russian.  The textbook’s success resulted in his having the name recognition to become the President of the Society of Cardiovascular Anesthesiologists and ultimately be recognized by that society through their distinguished service award. 

Dr. Finley received his undergraduate degree from North Carolina State University.  He received his medical degree from the Medical University of South Carolina.  He completed his anesthesiology residency at the University of North Carolina Hospitals and a cardiothoracic anesthesiology fellowship at Emory University.  Following his fellowship, he became a faculty member at the Medical University of South Carolina.  He holds the rank of Professor and is board certified in Anesthesiology by the American Board of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Echocardiography by the National Board of Echocardiography. 

Dr. Finley maintains a heavy clinical practice in the area of adult cardiothoracic anesthesiology while serving as the Division Chief of Cardiothoracic Anesthesiology.  His leadership of the division has been stellar.  His previous leadership roles include Medical Director for the Ashley River Tower Operating Room, Director of Perioperative Echocardiography and Director of the Perioperative Echocardiography Resident Rotation.  Additionally, her serves on the Board of Directors of the American Society of Echocardiography

Two important relevant factors qualified him for consideration of the Scott T. Reeves Endowed Chair: 

  • His interest in coagulation management which led to collaboration with the Department of Medicine’s Division of Hematology to successfully implement the use of rotational thromboelastography during cardiac surgery for bleeding management which resulted in a significant decline in transfusions.
  • His expertise in perioperative echocardiography. His expertise is recognized at MUSC as a lead developer of the Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement and Mitral Clip programs and course director for a transesophageal echocardiography simulator course. Through his service on the Council of Perioperative Echocardiography he was the second author of a consensus statement on the basic perioperative transesophageal echocardiography examination.

Claudia Oxner Simmons, M.D. Endowed Chair in Anesthesia and Perioperative Medicine – Dr. Latha Hebbar

Dr. Latha Hebbar

Dr. Claudia Oxner graduated from Newberry College and the Medical College of South Carolina in Charleston and was the first woman doctor from Batesburg-Leesville. Out of a class of 69 graduates, only three were women, with Claudia being the youngest member of the class. After graduating from the Medical College, she extended her education to Anesthesia, being one of the first anesthesiology residents at what is now the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC). She worked at Asheville Anesthesia Associates in Asheville, North Carolina for her entire career.

 

Dr. Oxner was admired by many and showed great strength, humility, kindness, and grace throughout her life.  She touched many lives during her career.  She remained connected to her Alma Mater and left a significant contribution to the Department of Anesthesia and Perioperative Medicine following her death on March 11, 2016.  The proceeds of her contribution were utilized by the department to fund an endowed chair in her honor.

A native of India and now a US citizen, Dr. Hebbar earned her medical degree and completed Anesthesia residency in India followed by training in Anesthetics in the United Kingdom.  Her US medical training began at MUSC in 1994 as a PGY 4 anesthesia resident.  Upon completion of residency at MUSC, she remained here to begin her now 27-year tenure progressing from a basic science research fellow in cardiothoracic anesthesia to Professor and Vice Chair for Faculty Development. 

While completely fulfilling the missions of clinical care, education and research, she has contributed in significant roles in the area of administration at all levels.

  • Anesthesia Residency Program Director
  • Vice Chair for Faculty Development
  • Founding Faculty Sponsor Anesthesia Interest Group
  • SC Department of Health, Environmental Control – Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Committee
  • Editorial Board, Case Reports in Anesthesiology – Hindawi Publication Corporation

She is one of our most gifted teachers.  Her contributions to student and resident education have been indispensable, devoting a tremendous investment of time and energy in meeting with and counseling them.  Without exception, residents rate her with the highest marks for the importance and educational value of her contributions, making her a key individual in student and resident training.  She educates, trains, leads and disciplines by personal example.  Education is her passion: “I revel in the metamorphosis of residents as they graduate and become independent practitioners.”

Charlie T. Wallace, M.D. Endowed Chair in Pediatric Anesthesia and Perioperative Medicine – Dr. Marc Hassid  

Dr. Marc Hassid

With the onset of construction of the MUSC Shawn Jenkins Children's Hospital, the Department of Anesthesia and Perioperative Medicine wanted to make a substantial contribution to the future of pediatric anesthesiology by initiating fund raising of a 2‑million-dollar endowed chair in recognition of the 40-year contributions of Dr. Charlie Wallace to our specialty, institution and city.

A native of Charleston, Dr. Wallace was a 1972 graduate of the MUSC Anesthesia residency program.  He completed a fellowship in pediatric anesthesiology at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and then joined the MUSC faculty in 1973 as the department’s first fellowship-trained pediatric anesthesiologist and fifth faculty member. In 1976, he was named Director of Pediatric Anesthesia.  He served two terms as Medical Director of the Ambulatory Surgery Center, 1990-1995 and 1999-2012.  Beyond his work at MUSC, he contributed to the advancement of his profession through involvement and leadership with the Charleston County Medical Society, the American Society of Anesthesiologists and the Southern Medical Association.  From 1978-2004 he served on the Charleston County Council with several terms as Chairman.  In 2006, he was awarded the prestigious South Carolina Order of the Palmetto Award, the highest civilian honor awarded by the Governor of South Carolina presented to South Carolinians who demonstrate extraordinary lifetime achievement, service and contributions of national or statewide significance.

Dr. Marc Hassid is the inaugural recipient of the Charlie T. Wallace M.D. Endowed Chair in Pediatric Anesthesia and Perioperative Medicine.  Dr. Hassid attended college and medical school at the University of California at Davis.  After medical school, he did a transitional internship at Kern Medical Center in Bakersfield, California followed by his anesthesiology residency at Washington University in St. Louis and a pediatric anesthesia fellowship at Saint Louis Children's Hospital.  After completing fellowship, he began his career at MUSC in 2009.

He credits much of his success at MUSC to being in the right place, at the right time, surrounded by the right people.  In the clinical domain, he has been an integral member of the pediatric cardiac anesthesia team.  During his time as the Division Chief of Pediatric Anesthesia the group moved into the new Summey Medical Pavilion, the new Shawn Jenkins Children’s Hospital, and started a pediatric anesthesia fellowship. 

Dr. Hassid is honored and humbled to receive the endowed chair and grateful for the mentoring from numerous faculty, including Dr. Reeves, Department Chairman, and Dr.  Wallace, himself.  When asked about his role, Dr. Hassid states, “My job is made much easier because the team is highly self‑motivated and extremely talented.  We all share a passion for helping children and families get through some of the most challenging times in their lives.”  Outside the hospital he happily spends time with, and is supported by, his wife and three daughters.

South Carolina SmartState Endowed Chair in Human Factors – Ken Catchpole, Ph.D.

The SmartState Program was created in 2002 by the South Carolina General Assembly to help transform the state’s economy. Central to the program was the recruitment of world-class researchers and scientists to serve as Endowed Chairs at the state’s three research-intensive universities:  Clemson University, the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) and the University of South Carolina (USC). The Endowed Chairs reside within SmartState Centers of Economic Excellence and use their positions to conduct research that leads to innovative technologies and spin-off companies, provides educational opportunities for students and creates a leadership and workforce pipeline.  The SmartState Program and the Endowed Chairs are aligned with six industry sectors critical to South Carolina’s economy and to the world.

A native of the United Kingdom, Dr. Catchpole received his Bachelor of Science degree in Ergonomics with DPS from Loughborough University and earned his PhD in Psychology and Physiology from the University of Leeds.  Prior to coming to the United States in 2011 for a position at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, he held several positions in the United Kingdom with quasi-government, educational and healthcare organizations. In 2016, he joined MUSC as a Professor and the Endowed Chair in Clinical Practice and Human Factors in the Department of Anesthesia and Perioperative Medicine.  He applies human factors expertise in accident analysis and quality improvement across the clinical enterprise, from signage design, falls, CLABSI, sepsis and failure-to-rescue to all manner of organizational reliability and safety concerns. His current research projects, totaling over $6m in US federal funding, include improving anesthesia medication delivery; safety in robotic surgery; and sterile processing work systems improvement; with a dozen other interests at any one time. Through over 120 peer-reviewed publications, public speaking, and the media, he has engaged thousands of people in the improvement of healthcare from a sociotechnical systems perspective while working to embed human factors practice in everyday care.

He is the former Associate Editor of the journal, BMJ Quality and Safety.  He is a current and former reviewer for numerous journals, government agencies and scientific foundations, notably Annals of Surgery, Journal of Patient Safety, Chief Scientist Office of the Scottish Government, National Science Foundation, National Institute for Health Research (UK).

Today’s healthcare environment is multi-dimensional, integrated, highly technological, team oriented, process driven, quality critical and competition focused.  To excel in this multi-faceted environment, it is extremely beneficial to have an experienced individual in the area of human factors to lead individuals, departments, teams, projects and research to integrate human principles, actions and reactions with functions, processes, design and development resulting in improved patient safety, patient outcomes, provider stressors, process improvement, physical environment, equipment placement, etc.  The benefit of his expertise is not specific to the Department of Anesthesia and Perioperative Medicine, the College or Medicine or MUSC but rather provides an interface with multiple MUSC health factions.