CENTER FOR CRITICAL CARE

Center For Critical Care Strategies

• Partnering with Houston Methodist’s Centers of Excellence to achieve their goals while identifying new approaches to improving patient care

• Building and maintaining a robust database infrastructure that will allow us to continually evaluate and assess our care and further optimize patient outcomes

• Further integrating our virtual ICU platform within the Houston Methodist system and aiding other institutions seeking to implement similar systems

• Highlighting the innovations and advancements in our critical care ICUs locally, regionally and nationally

• Spearheading as well as supporting research projects and academic pursuits for faculty and staff

Education

We offer transformative educational opportunities for learners seeking interdisciplinary, team-based and patient-focused approaches to clinical and translational research education.

• Our learners enjoy access to Houston Methodist’s academic affiliations with the top-ranked Weill Cornell Medicine, Texas A&M and the University of Houston.

• Learners receive leadership training from some of the preeminent luminaries in Critical Care Medicine who, daily, carry out best practices within one of the nation’s top-ranked hospitals.

Residencies

• PGY2 Critical Care Pharmacy Residency Program

• Critical Care Physical Therapy Residency Program

Fellowships

• Pulmonary Disease & Critical Care Fellowship

• Surgical Critical Care Fellowship

• Neurocritical Care Fellowship

Research

The Center for Critical Care is committed to developing and supporting a group of physician-scientists who conduct bedside clinical research that spans the entire continuum of patient care. Our studies range from investigator-initiated projects to industry-sponsored clinical trials and federally funded grants. Using our innovative approach, we intend to decrease the rate of complications and improve outcomes in critically ill patients.

Activity and Focus Areas

• Brain Health

- Virtual-Reality-Based Cognitive Exercises for Prevention of Delirium

- Design and Development of Software (Named “ReCognitionVR”) for VR-based Cognitive Exercises

• Lung Health

- ARDS Diagnosis and Phenotypes

- Artificial Intelligence and ARDS

- Computational Lung Model

- Pulmonary Hypertension in ARDS

- ECMO Education

• Critical Care Medicine

- Preventative Bundles — Prehabilitation

- Predictive Analytics — AI and Big Data Driven Tools (e.g., Biomarkers for Sarcopenia; Funding Provided by Dyer Fellowship

- Non-Pharmacological Protocols — Music Therapy

Innovation

The Center serves as an integrative hub for a range of medical disciplines and has forged robust collaborative partnerships systemwide. With a focus on leading medicine, the Center strives to uncover new advancements in medicine and technology that will help transform critical care medicine in the coming century.

Activity and Focus Areas

• Post Intensive Care Syndrome Clinic

• Virtual Intensive Care Unit (vICU)

• Music Therapy

• Sepsis

• Outcomes, Quality and Development of Critical Care Protocols

• Leading-Edge Technology Using Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality

Virtual Intensive Care Unit

*Not including Intermediate Care Units

*Note: Number of ICU beds is subject to change

*Source: 2021 Facts and Stats/Houston Methodist Epic/Quality Analytics Team Systemwide

*Source: 2021 Center for Critical Care/ICU Systemwide (approximate and subject to change)

- Measuring Sleep in the ICU

Houston Methodist faculty and staff have access to the award-winning Houston Methodist Research Institute and a state-of-the-art simulation center. We provide our researchers and affiliates with a resource-rich environment of tools, laboratories, and training.

The vICU provides continuous intensivist coverage for Houston Methodist’s 320+ ICU beds. The vICU is a remote monitoring center that captures real-time physiological data and uses predictive analytic tools to rapidly identify critical risk factors and anticipate patient decompensation. The vICU Operations Center is staffed by intensivists and critical care nurses who provide patient care by initiating earlier interventions and offering additional support to bedside ICU teams.