Abstract
Anesthesiology research has contributed to dramatic improvements in patient safety and quality of care.
Although in the United States, only 8.2 deaths per million surgical hospital discharges are secondary
to apparent anesthetic complications, 30-day mortality after inpatient surgeries still ranges at 1.3%. The
most common and potentially preventable causes of 30-day mortality after non-cardiac surgery are
cardiovascular events. With more than 300 million patients having surgeries worldwide, the potential of
improvements in perioperative care to reduce human suffering and harm is immense. Despite its
relevance to perioperative mortality, high-quality clinical cardiovascular outcomes research, in
particular, is not commonly conducted in the majority of US academic anesthesiology departments.
Indeed, the ongoing decline in the physician-scientist workforce sparked the Director of NIH, Dr. Francis
Collins, to convene the physician-scientist working group to provide recommendations to enhance its
robustness and diversity. The field of anesthesiology lags behind in NIH funding, e.g., as compared to
surgery or medicine departments. Yet, despite efforts to provide junior applicants with a competitive
advantage, the critical transition from career development to independent investigator status, often
referred to as “K2R”, remains a significant challenge, especially for women and investigators from
underrepresented in medicine backgrounds. Currently, the typical model for a mentor/mentee
relationship is conditional on physical proximity. COR-PM challenges this status quo, by proposing
mentees from around the US to lead a cross-institutional mentoring effort, that will be independent of
the physical location of mentee and mentor. To achieve the conference’s objectives, the investigators
have designed a steering group comprised of 25 junior investigators from across the US, advised by
an international eight-member senior advisory panel comprised of independent investigators with a
track record of success in clinical cardiovascular outcomes research. Using a “By Mentees – With
Mentors – For Mentees” paradigm, the investigators propos three specific aims. Aim 1: Organize the
2022 Cardiovascular Outcomes Research in Perioperative Medicine - COR-PM to advance clinical
outcomes research in cardiovascular medicine within the T2-T4 translational spectrum. Aim 2: Provide
mentorship capacity for junior investigators by providing tangible mentoring to attendees through
pairing mentees with mentors across institutions. Aim 3: Create an inclusive and welcoming conference
atmosphere by enhancing diversity and in all aspects of conference planning and implementation. The
expected outcome of this conference is for participants to gain knowledge in the area of perioperative
cardiovascular outcomes research and benefit from establishing mentoring relationships outside of their
respective home institutions. COR-PM will thereby have an immediate and positive impact.