Speaker

Randal S. Blank, M.D., Ph.D. received a B.S. in Biology in 1981 and a Ph.D. in Physiology in 1986 from The Pennsylvania State University and a M.D. from the University of Virginia School of Medicine in 1997. Dr. Blank is the Cosmo A. DiFazio Professor of Anesthesiology and serves as the Chief of Thoracic Anesthesia at the University of Virginia Health System. He is currently involved in clinical and translational research in a number of related areas including: anesthetic factors in the pathogenesis of lung injury, lung injury during one lung ventilation and thoracic surgery, optimizing protective ventilation during thoracic surgery, mediastinal mass syndrome, and enhanced recovery after thoracic surgery. He is Associate Editor of the text Principles and Practice of Anesthesia for Thoracic Surgery (Peter Slinger, ed.), serves on numerous professional committees, and was a founding member of the Society of Cardiovascular Anesthesiologists Thoracic Anesthesia Symposium, for which he currently serves as Chair.