Viewing Party: Sepsis Alliance Presents: Sepsis Fundamentals

Chanu Rhee, MD, MPH, is an Associate Professor of Population Medicine at Harvard Medical School and an infectious disease and critical care physician at Brigham and Women's Hospital.  He is internationally recognized for his contributions and expertise in the epidemiology, surveillance, diagnosis, prevention, and management of sepsis and infections in critically ill patients. He conducts clinical and epidemiologic research with a particular focus on harnessing electronic health record data to generate insights that advance clinical practice, quality improvement, public health strategy, and healthcare policy.  He has been a leader in sepsis quality improvement efforts within the Mass General Brigham system and has participated in many national committees focused on improving sepsis care and outcomes, including in his current role as Chair of the Infectious Diseases Society of America’s Sepsis Advisory Panel.  Dr. Rhee is an associate editor for Clinical Infectious Diseases, a member of the editorial boards for Critical Care Medicine and Critical Care Explorations, and a Fellow of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America, and the American College of Critical Care Medicine.  

Christa Schorr, DNP, MSN, RN, RCCM, NEA-BC, is a Clinical Nurse Scientist at Cooper University Hospital and a Professor of Medicine at Cooper Medical School at Rowan University.  During her 30+ years in nursing, she has practiced clinically, directed critical care quality improvement and clinical research, and served as the Program Manager for a North American sepsis clinical trial. Dr. Schorr received her Diploma in Nursing from Helene Fuld School of Nursing, Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Thomas Jefferson University, and her Masters of Science in Nursing and Doctorate of Nursing Practice degrees from Drexel University. 

Dr. Schorr has lectured nationally and internationally and has authored or co-authored over 90 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters. She served as national faculty for the Phase III and IV Society of Critical Care Medicine Surviving Sepsis Campaign (SSC) Collaboratives and three statewide collaboratives and is a co-investigator for the NHLBI-sponsored Assessment of Implementation Methods in Sepsis and Respiratory Failure (AIMS) trial. 

Dr. Schorr is a member of the SSC Steering Committee and was the 2021 SSC Guidelines Committee Group Head for the long-term outcomes and goals of care section. In 2021, Dr. Schorr received the prestigious Asmund S. Laerdal Memorial Award in conjunction with the 50th annual Critical Care Congress.  She stresses the importance of early sepsis identification, and the significance of patient and family engagement in her work. 

Laura Evans, MD, MSc, is a professor of medicine at the University of Washington and the Medical Director of Critical Care at the University of Washington Medical Center. Her interests focus on sepsis and preparedness for high-consequence infectious diseases, particularly on guideline development and implementation, as well as patient safety/quality improvement.  

Dr. Evans earned her medical degree at the University of Michigan and did her residency in internal medicine at Columbia University. She completed pulmonary and critical care medicine fellowship training and earned a Master of Science in epidemiology at the University of Washington. She then joined the New York University and Bellevue Hospital faculty in 2006.  In her role there, she led the evacuation of the Bellevue Hospital intensive care units in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. She was the clinical lead for New York City’s only patient with Ebola. She was associate program director for the pulmonary and critical care fellowship program at NYU for more than 10 years. After 14 years in NYC, she returned to Seattle in 2019.

She joined the steering committee of the Surviving Sepsis Campaign (SSC) in 2012 and was the co-chair of the past two revisions of the SSC adult sepsis guidelines and SSC COVID management guidelines co-chair. She also served as the critical care team lead for the National Institutes of Health COVID Management Guidelines. She is the current chair of the American Board of Internal Medicine’s Critical Care Medicine specialty board.

Stephanie Taylor, MD, MS, focuses her research on improving patient outcomes and developing innovative practices to promote optimal care for sepsis patients in both early antibiotic management and post-discharge transition and recovery. She employs her expertise in health services research, pragmatic trials, large datasets, and implementation science to identify and address essential healthcare questions related to quality, value, and equity of care. Dr. Taylor is also the Division Chief of Hospital Medicine at Michigan Medicine.

Hallie Prescott, MD, MSc, is an Associate Professor in Pulmonary & Critical Care Medicine at the University of Michigan and staff physician at the Ann Arbor Veterans Affairs Hospital. She is an expert in long-term outcomes and recovery after sepsis. Her research program has been funded by AHRQ, NIH, and Department of Veterans Affairs. She is a vice-chair of the Surviving Sepsis Campaign guidelines, council member of the International Sepsis Forum, and physician-lead for a BlueCross/Blue Shield of Michigan sepsis quality improvement consortium of 50 Michigan hospitals.