SUMMARY
Krzysztof Laudanski, M.D., Ph.D., is a critical care medicine expert whose broad research interests include recovery after critical illness, medical decision-making, racial bias in health care, innovative health care processes and mentorship.
Focus areas
- Dysregulation of DNA expression in survivors of critical care illnesses. Dr. Laudanski believes that critical conditions, such as sepsis, trauma, COVID-19, traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder, serve as severe insults to the body, potentially reprograming the immune system long-term in some people. The reprogramming works through the regulatory mechanisms of genetic code expression, such as methylation, histone modifications and interference RNA. This affects how DNA is accessed and expressed. Subsequently, the effect of the severe insult extends past the original event, resulting in an inability of the immune system to properly deactivate. As a result, chronic, low-grade inflammation may emerge and accelerate degenerative illnesses, hindering recovery. Even if chronic inflammation eventually decreases, its initial protracted presence can result in an excessive and accelerated risk of certain degenerative illnesses such as arteriosclerosis and dementia. Dr. Laudanski is investigating how to interrupt these processes.
- Medical decision-making. There are gaps in knowledge about how doctors match decision-making frameworks to needs in the intensive care unit (ICU). It's also unclear how using reflexive, habitual, variable and biased-prone processes can negatively affect patients and health care providers. Dr. Laudanski studies how to balance the strengths of the decision-making process with the application of computer aids, artificial intelligence and organizational modifications.
- Bias in health care delivery. Despite implementation of standardized treatment protocols, wide variability persists in clinical outcomes across racial groups. Specifically, people in Black and Hispanic populations frequently experience higher morbidity and mortality rates across several illnesses than do people in other racial and ethnic populations. Dr. Laudanski studies patient-related variables, community circumstances and hospital-based factors driving racial differences in health care.
- Implementation of innovative techniques and workflow in health care. Improving existing health care models or envisioning new models may significantly impact individual and population health. Dr. Laudanski is particularly interested in tele-ICU, artificial intelligence, lean design in medicine and simplification of care delivery. He believes that by deploying a variety of harmonized technologies, such as wearable sensors, artificial intelligence, telemedicine and robotics, alternative models of health care delivery will emerge.
- Mentorship. Dr. Laudanski's passion is providing support to future generations of medical professionals. Providing adequate mentorship is crucial for ensuring the continuous improvement of health care. His philosophy is to focus on creating a partnership with mentees to ensure that their research projects become independent entities, enabling growth and sustainability of their future endeavors.
Significance to patient care
Dr. Laudanski's clinical and research interests aim at deploying next-generation genetic tools to determine mechanisms of immune performance underpinning metaflammation after critical insults to the body. Dr. Laudanski has established how protracted, genome-driven immunoaberrations result in accelerated progression of aging, senescence and other suboptimal long-term outcomes in survivors of critical illnesses and conditions.
Dr. Laudanski's long-term goal is to launch a clinical trial of a compound approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that can extinguish chronic inflammation in survivors of critical care illness.
Professional highlights
- Senior fellow, Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics, University of Pennsylvania, 2018-present.
- Society of Critical Care Medicine.
- Vice chair, Data, Outcome and Definitions Workgroup, Discovery Committee, 2023-2027.
- Vice chair and chair, Tele-Critical Care Medicine Committee, 2021-2023.
- Fellow, Critical Care Medicine, 2016.
- Vision Grant, 2013.
- First place, Kosaka Award, International Anesthesia Research Society, 2015.