SATA Vanguard Committee Expert Lecture Series
Dr. Sakai earned his MD in 1989 and his PhD in 2001 (cardiovascular surgery) from Kyoto University in Japan. After completing a cardiovascular surgery residency in 1995 at Tenri Hospital, Nara, Japan, he became a board-certified cardiovascular surgeon in Japan. After completing clinical and research cardiovascular fellowships at the University of Toronto, Dr. Sakai relocated to Pittsburgh as a visiting instructor of thoracic organ transplant surgery at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) in 1999. Upon completing his anesthesiology residency at UPMC in 2005, he joined the faculty in the Department of Anesthesiology. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 2010, then to Professor in 2014.
His 100 peer-reviewed publications cover numerous topics, including liver transplantation anesthesiology (intraoperative cardiac arrest, pulmonary thromboembolism, and usage of low dose tPA; complications related to the invasive monitors and veno-venous bypass) and anesthesia education. He is recognized as one of the leaders of transplant anesthesiology. He is PresidentElect of the Society for the Advancement of Transplant Anesthesia (SATA) (2019-2021) and was co-editor of a comprehensive transplant anesthesiology textbook entitled Anesthesia and Perioperative Care for Organ Transplantation (Springer Inc.) in 2017. He serves as Associate Editor of Clinical Transplantation and Seminars in Cardiothoracic and Vascular Anesthesia. He is a nationally recognized anesthesia educator. He received the Distinguished Educator in Anesthesiology Award from the American Society of Anesthesiologists and the Society for Education (SEA) in Anesthesia in 2019 and serves as the Chair of the SEA Research Committee. Dr. Sakai was elected to the Association of University Anesthesiologists in 2013.
Leave a Reply