The American Thoracic Society has selected E. Wesley Ely, MD, MPH, the Grant W. Liddle Professor of Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and co-director of the Critical Illness, Brain Dysfunction and Survivorship (CIBS) Center, to receive the 2025 John W. Walsh PAR Award for Excellence.
The American Thoracic Society is the world’s leading medical society dedicated to advancing public health, research and treatment of pulmonary disease, critical illness and sleep disorders. The PAR Award, presented by the society’s Public Advisory Roundtable, honors individuals who embody compassion for patients, innovative spirit and outstanding leadership skills.
Named for the late John W. Walsh, a non-profit leader and advocate for people with pulmonary disease, the award will be presented May 19 during the 2025 ATS International Conference in San Francisco.
An internist, pulmonologist and critical care physician, Ely has focused on critically ill patients who suffer from delirium and who are at risk for long-term cognitive, functional and neuropsychological impairments. His efforts helped identify delirium as one of the most critical problems facing patients in the intensive care unit.
Ely is also associate director for research for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Tennessee Valley Geriatric Research Education and Clinical Center (GRECC) at the Nashville VA Medical Center. Last year, he received the VA’s Paul B. Magnuson Award for Outstanding Achievement in Rehabilitation Research and Development.
In announcing the ATS award, the PAR cited Ely’s service, which “embodies vision, hope, support and relief” for patients who have survived severe lung diseases and critical care illnesses.
“Our research mission in the CIBS Center at Vanderbilt and the Nashville VA is full of hope,” Ely said. “We work alongside our patients and their families with the goals of reducing suffering and improving the lives of people around the world whom we will never meet.”
Ely is the author of “Every Deeply Drawn Breath: A Critical Care Doctor on Healing, Recovery, and Transforming Medicine in the ICU,” published in 2021.
