Dr. Vivek Moitra elected to ABA Board of Directors

Vivek Moitra, MD, MHA, FCCM has been elected to the board of directors of the American Board of Anesthesiology (ABA). He will begin his term as diplomate-director at the ABA this fall.

The ABA is the certifying body for the field: it defines the standards for anesthesiology education and practice and designs assessments for initial and subspecialty certification. As a member of the ABA board, Dr. Moitra will shape the future of anesthesiology by developing state-of-the-art learning opportunities and assessments that uphold the highest degree of quality care and patient safety in anesthesiology and perioperative medicine.

Dr. Moitra is the Allen I. Hyman Professor of Critical Care Anesthesiology at CUMC, the chief of the Division of Critical Care Medicine, and co-medical director of the Surgical Intensive Care Unit. He is known as a consummate patient advocate, and his professionalism as a critical care anesthesiologist and commitment to building high-performing care teams has led to better outcomes for the critically ill at CUIMC/NYP. For his local, national, and international leadership as an intensivist, he was named a Fellow of the American College of Critical Care Medicine (FCCM) in 2016. The FCCM designation identifies an elite group of clinicians who demonstrate steadfast engagement with the values of this subspecialty: exceptional patient-centered care, and outstanding clinical and academic leadership.

Dr. Moitra is the current director of the department’s Critical Care Medicine Fellowship. He is a recipient of the department’s Kathryn Cozine Teacher of the Year and ICU Teacher of the Year awards, and is a member of the VP&S Virginia Apgar Academy of Medical Educators and the Academy of Clinical Excellence.

His scholarship includes over thirty book chapters, along with research journal articles, guidelines, and reviews. He has been asked to serve as visiting professor in departments of anesthesiology, medicine, and critical care at universities across the United States and has been invited to speak on critical care and leadership, including crisis resource management, at dozens of national and international forums. Dr. Moitra created an innovative online course in crisis resource management, released in the fall of 2020. The course explores factors of effective teamwork in complex medical emergencies, with the goal of protecting the patient, streamlining team performance, and reducing communication errors.

Prior to this appointment, Dr. Moitra has had impactful educational leadership roles at the American Board of Anesthesiology for well over a decade. Dr. Moitra has served as editor for the ABA in-training examination, which evaluates trainee progress toward certification, and as editor for the critical care examination, which assesses the skills and clinical judgement necessary for an ABA diplomate to practice in the critical care medicine subspecialty. He also is Chair of the ABA’s Critical Care Examination Committee, a position he has held since 2020.