Rita Bakhru, M.D., MS, Research Profile

Rita Bakhru, M.D., MS

Associate Professor
Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, Allergy, and Sleep Medicine

Research Type: Clinical


Rita Bakhru, M.D., MSCE, is an Associate Professor of Medicine. Her research interests include ICU organization and staffing including donor care units, ICU practices and protocols, quality improvement in the ICU, and recovery after critical illness. She directs the MUSC ICU Recovery Clinic, the MUSC Specialty Medical ICU (where care for patients with liver failure and general medical critical care is provided) and the MUSC Donor Care Unit. Through her work, she regularly collaborates with the CAIRO Network as well as the DONOR Network; previously she has worked with the PETAL Network and the Pragmatic Critical Care Trials Group as well. Dr. Bakhru has received funding from internal awards, the NIH, the Duke Endowment, and HRSA. She has mentored pre-doctoral students, residents, post-doctoral fellows, and allied health professionals; many of these mentees have presented at local, regional and national conferences and received awards for their work. She previously held positions in ATS and SCCM; currently she serves as the Course Director for the Central Venous Line Placement Course for ACP, is a CAIRO post-ICU Clinic Collaborative Co-Chair, serves on the ABIM Pulmonary Disease Board Approval Committee. Finally, Dr. Bakhru is also the program director for the MUSC Critical Care Medicine (Internal Medicine) fellowship.

Dr. Bakhru received her Bachelor of Arts in Neuroscience and Spanish from Johns Hopkins University. She completed medical school and her residency in Internal Medicine at the University of Michigan. She then went on to fellowship in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, where she completed her Master of Science in Clinical Epidemiology as well. She joined the faculty at Wake Forest School of Medicine in 2014 and was on faculty there until 2023. Dr. Bakhru joined the faculty at MUSC in 2023.

Publications 

PubMed