CRITICAL CARE MEDICINE

RUNNING TOWARD A CRISIS: CRITICAL CARE TEAM ADAPTS DURING COVID-19

Critical care medicine physicians and nurses at Houston Methodist have always cared for the sickest patients across the academic medical center’s eight hospitals. However, the intensity of COVID-19 expanded their focus well beyond emergency rooms and intensive care units. “We started with 130 ICU beds on the main campus, and that grew to 180 ICU beds in a matter of months,” says Dr. Faisal Masud, the Mary A. and M. Samuel Daffin, Sr. Centennial Chair in Anesthesia and Critical Care and medical director of the Center for Critical Care at Houston Methodist. “Despite all the challenges, our doctors and nurses have run toward the crisis. They have volunteered for extra shifts, cared for patients like family, cried tears of exhaustion, cheered when patients recovered, and demonstrated the best of humanity. I feel so blessed to work in this place.” Because COVID-19 patients require more isolation-safety protocols, critical care medicine staff prioritized advancing technological innovations early in the pandemic. Generous contributions from individual donors and corporate support from Reliant and Chevron helped spur the development and implementation of an arsenal of coronavirus-fighting interventions. “COVID-19 amplified the need for fresh ideas, innovative treatment options and new communication methods,” Dr. Masud says. He and his team helped create aerosol design shields for health care workers, helmets that allow patients to avoid intubation, a virtual ICU that centrally coordinates 24/7 patient care and a digital platform called CareSense that provides follow-up communication for patients well beyond the hospital door. To expand opportunities for more creative advancements, the physicianscientists of the Center for Critical Care are partnering with engineering medicine (EnMed) “physicianeers”

from Texas A&M University, with support from the Reliant Innovation Fund. The fund is supporting Dr. Asma Zainab’s development of a computational model of lungs in patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome and Dr. Hina Faisal’s work to use virtual reality cognitive simulation to prevent delirium. Houston Methodist was founded when the world battled Spanish flu over a century ago. As the hospital begins its second century of service, the pandemic has shaped the focus and design of critical care. “Creative ideas advanced to address COVID-19 will continue to transform health care in the postpandemic world,” says Dr. Masud. “We are so grateful to the benefactors who make this progress possible. These innovations help us save lives and make sick people whole again. I want our teams and supporters to know their efforts make a long-term difference.” Prior to COVID-19, retired NBA player Harvey Catchings — one of Dr. Masud’s patients — spent two months in intensive care at Houston Methodist awaiting a heart transplant. He received a transplant in August 2019, then returned after the pandemic was raging to receive follow-up care. “I see how different life is now for the amazing critical care medicine nurses who work in the ICU,” Catchings says. “They poured into my life in 2019. I am even more thankful to them now, because I know how much they are sacrificing to serve as lifelines for isolated patients and their families dealing with this virus.”

HARVEY CATCHINGS WITH ICU CARE PROVIDERS

(Photo taken prior to COVID-19)