Shahzad Shaefi

Dr. Shahzad Shaefi serves as a cardiac anesthesiologist and critical care intensivist in the Department of Anesthesia, Critical Care and Pain Medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC). Dr. Shaefi obtained his medical degree in England from University College London. After graduation, he pursued his professional training both in the United Kingdom and the United States. He completed his internship at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and his anesthesia residency at Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Shaefi subsequently pursued dual cardiac anesthesia and critical care fellowship training at Columbia University Medical Center. Following completion of his fellowships he returned to BIDMC, and has since attained a Master of Public Health from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He is currently an Associate Professor of Anaesthesia at Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Shaefi currently serves as the Vice Chair for Professional Affairs. Other hospital administrative and leadership roles include the Co-Director of the Neurosciences Intensive Care Unit and the Co-Director of the Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation Program at BIDMC. Dr. Shaefi has also been the Program Director of three fellowships, namely the Anesthesia Critical Care Medicine Fellowship, the Adult Cardiothoracic Anesthesia Fellowship, and the Neurointensive Care Fellowship in the Department of Anesthesia, Critical Care and Pain Medicine at BIDMC.

Dr. Shaefi is an Oral Board Examiner for the American Board of Anesthesiology (ABA) Part 2 Examination. He is the recipient of a Foundation for Anesthesia Education and Research (FAER) Mentored Research Training Grant, the GEMMSTAR Award from the National Institute on Aging and a K08 Career Development Award from National Institute of General Medical Sciences as well as R01 funding as a site investigator examining possible interventions to ameliorate cardiac surgery associated acute kidney injury. Dr. Shaefi also has received Department of Defense funding to evaluate innate immune failure following trauma. His current areas of research interest include hyperoxia and its neurocognitive effects in cardiac anesthesia, as well as the role of titrated oxygen therapy in critical illness. He has over 100 peer reviewed publications, book chapters and abstracts.

Dr. Shaefi also engaged in many professional organizations including the Society of Cardiovascular Anesthesiologists (SCA), the Association of University Anesthesiologists (AUA), the Society of Critical Care Anesthesiologist (SOCCA), the International Anesthesia Research Society (IARS) and the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA). He is the SOCCA Liaison to the SCA, the Vice Chair of Research Committee and also member of the Education Committee at SOCCA, a member of the Research and Scientific Program Committees at the SCA, and a member of the Communications Committee at the AUA. Dr. Shaefi sits on the Editorial Board for Trials and BMC Anesthesiology and is an ad hoc reviewer for several other journals in anesthesia and critical care.