We are pleased to announce that Atilio Barbeito, MD, MPH, has been appointed as our department's vice chair for faculty affairs, effective September 1. He will continue serving in his current role as chief of the Veterans Affairs Anesthesiology Service Division while a national search for that role is initiated.
Dr. Barbeito, associate professor of anesthesiology and Duke Anesthesiology alumnus, brings 18 years of experience to his new vice chair role in which he aims to assist departmental faculty members in developing skills related to the three domains of academic medicine, namely, the roles of teacher and educator, researcher and scholar, and administrator and leader. The Faculty Development Program at Duke Anesthesiology offers a range of pioneering initiatives, including a leadership program (ABLE), a mentoring program for researchers (SMART), a coaching program (CAMP), and various wellness activities, all designed to support the professional growth of faculty members at every career stage.
"I am very grateful for this opportunity," says Dr. Barbeito. "Working with each of our world-class Duke Anesthesiology faculty to help them turn their passions into contributions is what I love the most. I look forward to uncovering untapped potential, developing our faculty's vast amount of talent, and leading the program's growth into the next phase of our department's trajectory. I can’t wait to get started!"
Dr. Barbeito, a native of Buenos Aires, obtained his medical degree from Universidad del Salvador in Argentina. He is a graduate of the Duke Anesthesiology Residency Program (Class of 2000) and completed a cardiothoracic anesthesiology and critical care fellowship here at Duke. In 2012, he advanced his training by receiving a master of public health degree at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; he has since been working to improve the way we deliver perioperative care both at Duke and at the Durham Veterans Affairs Medical Center. He is particularly interested in prehabilitation and, with funding from the Rehabilitation Research and Development Office and the Office of Connected Care at the VA, he is studying the use of a telehealth-based multimodal prehabilitation intervention for patients undergoing high-risk surgery.
In 2006, Dr. Barbeito joined Duke Anesthesiology faculty and has since held various leadership positions. In 2013, he was appointed the director of quality improvement within the department and the assistant chief for quality and safety initiatives within the Durham Veterans Affairs Health Care System (VAHCS), the largest integrated health system in the nation. During his leadership, he developed personal dashboards to increase awareness about the safety and efficacy of our clinical practice. Five years later, he was named division chief, a role that includes leading the anesthesiology service at the VAHCS, which provides care to approximately 11,000 veterans undergoing surgery and non-operating room procedures each year. This service is also responsible for coverage of the Surgical Intensive Care Unit (he served as its director from 2015-2018), a chronic pain clinic, and a preoperative evaluation clinic, along with producing world-class basic science, epidemiologic and translational research. Notably, as division chief, he piloted a platform to reinforce values within the division and led an effort to measure engagement throughout the department, proving to be an integral part of fostering a culture of continuous improvement and excellence in both academic achievement and patient care.
On a national level, Dr. Barbeito is an active member of the Association of University Anesthesiologists and actively participated in FOCUS, an initiative of the Society of Cardiovascular Anesthesiologists, aimed at improving safety in the cardiovascular operating room. Additionally, he is a founding member of the Multi-Center Handover Collaborative, a national effort to standardize, improve and study transitions of care in the perioperative period.
We would like to express our appreciation to the eight-member search committee for their collective time, efforts and contributions to the search process and selection of Dr. Barbeito as the vice chair for faculty affairs - an important task that helps ensure the development of our faculty members and the future success of our department. The search committee was chaired by Dr. Miriam Treggiari and comprised of the following members of our department: Drs. Martha Kenney, Catherine Kuhn, Katherine Martucci, Timothy Miller, Alina Nicoara, Jamie Privratsky, and Dana Rawls.
Please join us in extending Dr. Barbeito congratulations on his new leadership role in our department. We are excited about the positive impact he will undoubtedly have in nurturing our faculty by providing essential vision, mentorship, opportunities, and infrastructure crucial for their advancement as esteemed leaders within our field.