Enhancing and advancing recovery after surgery: Find ways or make new ones
The Ohio State University College of Medicine Featured Expert:
Michelle Humeidan, MD, PhD, clinical professor of Anesthesiology
Neuroanesthesiology manages perioperative care of patients before, during, and after neurological surgeries. Michelle Humeidan, MD, PhD, specializes in developing interventions that enhance recovery and improve outcomes for patients undergoing complex procedures. Built on a framework she developed while working in basic science, she embeds best practices and discovery into every aspect of her work. This informs the next steps when patients do not have what they need to receive tailored personalized care. She collaborates with a multidisciplinary team of skilled experts to:
- Develop new needed interventions and make existing ones work better.
- Translate medical training into scientific discovery: Examine and implement therapeutic and diagnostic potential of brain exercises before and after surgery by focusing on perioperative brain health.
- Adapt research that shows that each cognition-stimulating activity that patients engaged with lessened the postoperative delirium risk by 8%.
- The Neurobics clinical trial, conducted at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, determined cognitive risk baselines, and showed the feasibility of brain games to calculate risk and improve outcomes.
- Optimize organs prior to surgery, especially in elderly surgical patients: Use approved drugs that work on the brain along with prehabilitation, creating protective factors and building cognitive reserve.
- Further develop existing initiatives for the aging population: Post-hospital care partnerships, a geriatric-focused CARE Clinic for cancer patients, and extensive geriatrics services, all designed to enhance older patient care and transition.
- Ensure that tools and resources are easily accessible, to help patients and their families engage in care and receive interventions that are effective.
Dr. Humeidan says her team is now examining how dietary regimens, and supplements like omega-3, affect surgery results and inflammatory markers.
