New CCAS Board of Directors Members

Vic Baum is Professor of Anesthesiology and Pediatrics, Director of Cardiac Anesthesia and Executive Vice-Chair at the University of Virginia. Prior to that he was at UCLA where he was also President of the Los Angeles County Society of Anesthesiologists. He is board certified in Pediatrics, Pediatric Cardiology, Pediatric Critical Care and Anesthesiology. He is on the editorial boards of The Journal of Cardiothoracic and Vascular Anesthesia and Seminars in Cardiothoracic and Vascular Anesthesia, and is an associate editor of Survey of Anesthesiology. He is a member of the Association of University Anesthesiologists and the Association of Cardiac Anesthesiologists and has been listed in “Best Doctors in America”. He has served on committees of the American Society of Anesthesiologists, the Society of Cardiovascular Anesthesiologists and the Society for Pediatric Anesthesia. He is on the Medical Advisory Board of the International Children’s Heart Foundation, with which he travels to do pediatric cardiac cases abroad in Eastern Europe, Central Asia and China. He has served as a consultant to the Ministry of Health of Uzbekistan. He has published articles and book chapters in areas of pediatric anesthesia, anesthesia for patients with congenital heart disease, adult cardiac anesthesia and pediatric critical care, and is co-author of the book Anesthesia for Genetic, Metabolic and Dysmorphic Syndromes of Childhood. He routinely gets a kick from the fact that as a pediatrician he is chief of cardiac anesthesia. He has long felt that pediatric cardiac anesthesia needs its own home and has been delighted to see the birth of the Congenital Cardiac Anesthesia Society.

I am a practicing Paediatric Cardiac Anaesthetist at Alder Hey Hospital in Liverpool in the UK.  Having been in my current position for five years, I have also undergone fellowship training in the UK and at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto.  My current interests are in optimal blood usage during paediatric cardiac surgery and intraoperative transoesophageal echo.  During the last few years, I have been fortunate to have the opportunity to lecture on aspects of paediatric anaesthesia both in the UK and abroad.  I have also joined the International Children’s Heart Foundation on trips to developing programs around the world.  The interventions we make are complex, and collaborations such as CCAS will help us clarify the best approaches and will direct research to prominent clinical problems. However, the community of anaesthetists caring for children and adults with congenital heart disease is small and if the organisation were constrained by geographical or national boundaries this would be counterproductive.  There are many high quality paediatric cardiac programs internationally.  Extending such collaboration to doctors working in newly developing programs across the world, would also sit well with the stated objectives of CCAS. 

I qualified in Medicine at Birmingham University Medical School, England in 1974, became a Fellow of the Royal College of Anaesthetists of England in 1979, and was appointed as Consultant Paediatric Anaesthetist at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, London in 1982. My clinical workload is predominantly anaesthesia for cardiac surgery and angiography, and I am currently Head of the Cardiac Anaesthesia service. Our cardiac programme is wide-ranging and includes one of the busiest heart and lung transplantation services worldwide, including bridging to transplantation with mechanical support and ECMO. I also have a clinical commitment within the cardiac intensive care unit, of which I was the Director for 12 years, and I am particularly interested in the interface and overlap between the OR and critical care. I have experience in Society and Committee work, and was Council member and subsequently President of the European Society of Paediatric and Neonatal Intensive Care.