Dieter Adelmann, MD, PhD

Dieter Adelmann, MD, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Anesthesia and Perioperative Care at the University of California, San Francisco. He completed medical school, followed by a residency in Anesthesiology and Intensive Care, and a PhD in Clinical Neurosciences at the Medical University of Vienna, Austria. In 2015-16, he completed a clinical fellowship in liver transplant anesthesia at UCSF and subsequently joined the UCSF faculty in 2016. In 2022, he completed his Habilitation at the Medical University of Vienna, earning the title of Privatdozent, a postdoctoral qualification that grants the right to teach and supervise doctoral students independently.

Research Overview
Dr. Adelmann is a transplant anesthesiologist focused on perioperative outcomes in abdominal organ transplantation. His work centers on linking perioperative practice patterns with postoperative outcomes and graft function using large-scale, multicenter datasets. He is the co-Principal Investigator of the UCSF Transplant Anesthesia Research Group.
He completed the Multicenter Perioperative Outcomes Group (MPOG) Research Fellowship in 2024-25. He was awarded a Mentored Research Training Grant (MRTG) Foundation for Anesthesia Education and Research in 2025.

Research Focus Areas
1. Liver Transplant Outcomes and Perioperative Management
Dr. Adelmann co-designed and directs the UCSF Transplant Outcomes in Anesthesia Database (TOAD), which integrates perioperative electronic medical record data with transplant-specific data such as donor and recipient data and graft outcomes for liver transplant recipients. TOAD has supported several first and senior author publications, including work on acute kidney injury, the use of intraoperative renal replacement therapy, vena cava implantation techniques, and early extubation after liver transplantation.
Dr. Adelmann also founded the multicenter Society for the Advancement of Transplant Anesthesia (SATA) Perioperative Care in Liver Transplantation Database, which now includes more than 30 sites across the United States. This collaboration provides a national platform to study perioperative variation and outcomes.

2. Kidney Transplant Outcomes Research
Building on his work with TOAD, Dr. Adelmann focuses on defining perioperative risk factors for delayed graft function and graft dysfunction in kidney transplant recipients. His research evaluates variation in fluid therapy, vasopressor use, and blood pressure management.

3. Multicenter MPOG Transplant Research
As a graduate of the MPOG Outcomes Research Fellowship, Dr. Adelmann uses large multicenter datasets to study how perioperative practice patterns affect postoperative outcomes. His work includes defining a national kidney transplant cohort and identifying how variation in intraoperative fluid therapy and blood pressure management affect graft outcomes.

Clinical Focus
In his clinical work, Dr. Adelmann specializes in liver transplant anesthesia, kidney transplant anesthesia, and neurosurgical anesthesia. He is fellowship trained in liver transplantation and is part of UCSF’s transplant anesthesia team.