Announcing the Patricia Sander Awardees for 2023: Catherine Chen, MD, MPH and Jeremy Juang, MD, PhD

We are delighted to announce the Patricia Sander awardees for 2023, Drs. Catherine Chen and Jeremy Juang! Designed to support early and mid-career faculty balancing the demands of home and work-life, the Patricia Sander Awards for Anesthesia Researchers drive research discoveries while prioritizing faculty well-being.

Established in 2018, previous awardees include Drs. Odmara Barreto Chang, Kerstin Kolodzie, Marc Buren and Solmaz Manuel. Read more about the 2023 awardees’ projects below.

Catherine Chen, MD, MPH

Project Title: Feasibility pilot study assessing oral versus intravenous sedation alternatives to monitored anesthesia care for cataract surgery 

Project Narrative: Due to the significant advances in modern cataract surgical technique over the last 30 years, the risk of cataract surgery is now considered low enough that some have questioned the need for anesthesiologists and nurse anesthetists in the operating room to provide continuous intraoperative monitoring and intravenous sedation (a.k.a., “monitored anesthesia care‚” or “MAC”). However, we do not know which alternatives to MAC are most acceptable to both patients and ophthalmologists. The goal of this proposal is to develop safe and acceptable alternatives to routine anesthesia-led sedation in healthy older adults undergoing cataract surgery by evaluating two non-MAC sedation models for cataract surgery care as part of a pilot feasibility study.

Jeremy Juang, MD, PhD

Project Title: Imaging based screening tool for predicting difficult airway 

Project Narrative: When patients cannot breathe on their own, a tube can be passed into the airway, a procedure called intubation, to deliver air from a machine into the lungs. Intubation can be difficult if the provider cannot see the structures in the throat. Our research will use imaging of the neck, which shows internal anatomy, to develop a model that can help identify patients in whom intubation will be difficult and reduce disparities in successful airway access. 

Featured in the 2023 annual report