Deshpande to lead peds anesthesiology society
Jayant Deshpande, M.D., will be named president of the Society for Pediatric Anesthesia (SPA) on Oct. 13 at the group's annual meeting in Chicago.
The purpose of the Society for Pediatric Anesthesia is to foster quality anesthesia and perioperative care, and to alleviate pain in children. Deshpande is currently vice president/president elect and Education Committee chair for the organization.
"This appointment is appropriate recognition of Dr. Deshpande's long history of leadership in the specialty of pediatric anesthesiology and is an honor for both him and the department of which we are all proud,” said Michael Higgins, M.D., chair of the Department of Anesthesiology and executive medical director of Perioperative Services.
Deshpande, who joined Vanderbilt in 1991, is a professor of Anesthesiology and Pediatrics, vice chair of Faculty Affairs for Anesthesiology, director of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine and director of Performance, Management and Improvement at the Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt.
He earned his undergraduate degree from Boston University, and received his medical degree from University of Tennessee. He also earned a Master's of Public Health from Vanderbilt.
He completed his pediatric residency at LeBonheur Children's Medical Center in Memphis and an anesthesia residency and fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania and Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
Deshpande is currently a member of the Core Measures Taskforce for the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health Care Organization. He also is the chair of the National Quality Forum Technical Advisory Panel on Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia and Respiratory Illness.
He has authored or co-authored more than 30 articles in peer-reviewed journals, has written more than two dozen chapters in medical books and has edited editions of “The Pediatric Pain Handbook.”
Deshpande will serve a two-year term as president of the SPA.