Elias Baedorf Kassis, MD
Director, Respiratory Care
Assistant Professor of Medicine
Areas of Expertise: Investigation and Academic Clinical Medicine
Academic Interests
Mechanisms of lung injury in ARDS Respiratory physiology and pathophysiology, patient-ventilator interaction and dyssynchrony, lung protective sedation strategies, optimization of weaning from mechanical ventilation, and the application of esophageal manometry to personalize mechanical ventilation.
Awards and Recognition
American Thoracic Society Unrestricted Critical Care Award: 2022 Teacher of the Year.
Pulmonary and Critical Care Fellowship: 2021-2022
A full list of Dr. Kassis’ published work can be found on My Bibliography.
More information can be found on Dr. Kassis’ Harvard Catalyst Profile.
+Current Projects
Prospective studies:- Adaptive Support Ventilation in ARDS (PI): a study comparing a new mode of ventilation where parameters are automatically adjusted by the vent to minimize mechanical work and driving pressure, with standard control mode ventilation.
- Pressure-Volume Loops in Respiratory Failure (PI): investigating the clinical application of pressure-volume loops for PEEP optimization, determination of recruitability, and ventilator optimization.
- Dyssynchrony frequency and clinical correlations (PI): investigation of patients with moderate-severe ARDS and the frequency of specific subtypes of dyssynchrony, and investigating the correlations with sedation, ventilator mode, clinical parameters and patient outcomes.
- Automation of a novel breathing pattern identification strategy using machine learning for clinical care and research.
- FAST Study (PI): investigation comparing strategies of SBT frequency and method in order to expedite weaning and extubation.
- Intellivent Ventilation (PI): investigation of a new mode of mechanical ventilation that uses ETCO2 to adjust minute ventilation needs and provides support via ASV.
PREVENT-VILI (PI): proposal for esophageal balloon directed PEEP combined with driving pressure guided tidal volume titration.
Retrospective Studies:
- Dyssynchrony pattern phenotypes with clinical correlations and inflammatory markers in EPVent2.
- Looking at PEEP responders or “recruitable” patients in relation to outcomes and response to treatment using recruitment maneuvers and changes in driving pressure in EPVent2.
- Transpulmonary pressure, minute stress, mechanical power in relation to mortality and clinical outcomes in the EPVent2 study.
- How to transition off of lung protective ventilation safely using a large retrospective database to model decisions on when and how patients are transitioned safely.
- Dosing of neuromuscular blockade using train of four modeling dose changes with treatment response.
- Comparison of pre and post Campbell diagram neuromuscular blockade protocol in the ICU.
- Mechanical power investigation in the ICU and intraoperatively.