Kirk Shelley, MD, PhD

Professor, Department of Anesthesiology

Our lab is dedicated to the investigation of cardiovascular physiology through the use of non-invasive monitors. This is accomplished by carefully documented clinical observations during surgical procedures and volunteer studies using normal subjects. The monitoring waveforms obtained are analyzed using state-of-the-art digital signal processing methods. The primary goal has been the understanding of the underlying physiology responsible for observed phenomena. The secondary goal is the utilization of this understanding to develop new methods of patient monitoring. This work, so far, has generated 11 peer reviewed papers and over 25 research abstracts.

The most recent efforts have been focused on integrating our research findings into the larger, growing field of functional hemodynamics. Functional hemodynamics is an exciting new approach to the understanding and care of patients based upon the observation that the individual patient needs to be optimized to their specific cardiac, pulmonary, and vascular physiology. A key observation has been the recognition that the interactions between the respiratory and cardiac systems lead to important clues regarding the status of each.