Message from the Chair

It is a privilege and a pleasure to lead the UCSF Department of Anesthesia and Perioperative Care, one of the preeminent departments in the world. UCSF has a storied history of innovation in anesthesia, critical care, and pain medicine. Important discoveries by the department include the first use of CPAP in premature infants, key contributions to the pharmacology of muscle relaxants and inhaled anesthetics, first demonstration of intraoperative transesophageal echocardiography, and many others.

We, as a department, are enormously proud of our tradition of outstanding patient care, research, and education. The department has been ranked in the top ten nationally in NIH-funded research for the last 10+ years with robust research programs spanning from ion channel structure and function to clinical and translational research.

Our residency program provides unparalleled diversity of experience across seven of the city’s university medical centers. We offer ACGME fellowships in Critical Care Medicine, Pain Medicine, Cardiac Anesthesia, Obstetric Anesthesia, Pediatric Anesthesia, Acute Pain and Regional Anesthesia, and many additional non-ACGME fellowships.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) are core principles of our department. It is essential that our department represents the population that we treat. San Francisco is one of the most diverse cities in the country and I am committed to creating a department that reflects that diversity. We are proud to be working with our Center for Health Equity in Surgery and Anesthesia to develop and implement formal DEI work as well as health equity curricula within the anesthesia, general surgery, and orthopaedic surgery residency training programs. 

Please feel free to reach out to me if you would like to learn more about our department and what UCSF has to offer. 

Michael Gropper, MD, PhD
Distinguished Professor and Chair