Paul Picton, M.B., Ch.B., MRCP, FRCA, appointed interim chair of Department of Anesthesiology

Paul Picton, M.B., Ch.B., MRCP, FRCA, has been appointed interim chair of the Department of Anesthesiology in the Medical School, effective May 1. The provost provided interim approval of his appointment, and it will be reported at the May Board of Regents meeting.

Picton is the inaugural David W. Learned Collegiate Professor of Anesthesiology; service chief, adult anesthesia; senior associate chair for clinical affairs and quality; and executive director of clinical anesthesiology services within the Department of Anesthesiology. He has been a faculty member within the divisions of Transplant and Hepatobiliary Anesthesia at the University of Michigan since 2006. He has served in many departmental and institutional capacities including director, transplant anesthesia; director, vascular anesthesia; chair, U-M Health Transfusion Committee; UH OR MPLAN anesthesia medical director, and as a member of the Executive Committee on Clinical Affairs.

Picton graduated from the University of Sheffield Medical School, UK, and completed residency training in both internal medicine and anesthesiology at the University of Southampton, UK. He received fellowship training in liver transplant and hepatobiliary anesthesia at the Institute of Liver Studies, Kings College Hospital, London, UK. He holds the European Certificate of Completion of Training (CCT) and was awarded board certification by both the Royal College of Physicians and by the Royal College of Anaesthetists.

Picton’s primary research interests are cerebral vulnerability and monitoring, and he forms part of a team evaluating the fundamental principles of mechanism of anesthesia and consciousness. He has served within the International Liver Transplantation Society, Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation, American Society of Anesthesiologists, International Anesthesia Research Society, and he currently sits on the Leadership Advisory Board for the Association of University Anesthesiologists.

He takes the Anesthesiology leadership reins from outgoing chair George A. Mashour, M.D., Ph.D., who will assume the role of senior associate dean for faculty and faculty development in the Medical School on May 1.