Dr. Derek Angus stands as a preeminent leader in critical care medicine and health services research, holding the distinguished position of Professor and Chair of the Department of Critical Care Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. He maintains secondary appointments across multiple disciplines including Medicine, Health Policy and Management, and Clinical and Translational Science, reflecting the interdisciplinary nature of his work. Educated at the University of Glasgow School of Medicine where he earned his MB, ChB in 1984, he furthered his medical training with MRCP (UK) certification from Glasgow teaching hospitals in 1988 before completing his MPH at the University of Pittsburgh in 1992. His early career included specialized fellowships in Critical Care Medicine and the Safar International Resuscitation Research Center at the University of Pittsburgh, establishing the foundation for his future contributions to acute care systems. Since then, he has distinguished himself as a world-class acute care trialist with expertise in sepsis and critical care organization.
Angus has distinguished himself as a world-class acute care trialist with groundbreaking research focusing on sepsis, pneumonia, and multisystem organ failure, significantly advancing the understanding of critical care delivery systems. His extensive scholarly output exceeds 300 publications with an extraordinary citation count exceeding 228,000 as documented on Google Scholar, underscoring his profound impact on medical science. As founder and Director of the CRISMA Center, he has cultivated a highly-productive research powerhouse funded by the NIH at approximately $5 million annually, growing the team to encompass more than 60 researchers dedicated to improving intensive care. His influential work includes landmark publications such as the JAMA 2000 study on critical care workforce requirements, the NEJM 2013 review on severe sepsis, and the pivotal 2014 NEJM trial on protocol-based care for early septic shock that has reshaped clinical practice worldwide.
Beyond his research contributions, Dr. Angus has pioneered the integration of clinical care expertise with organizational science to develop more efficient and effective critical care systems, fostering collaborations that span traditional disciplinary boundaries. He has demonstrated exceptional leadership in mentoring the next generation of clinical scientists through the CRISMA Center's robust training programs, creating pathways for bright researchers to advance intensive care delivery. His current research focuses on developing learning healthcare systems that fuse randomized trials with big data to create self-improving care models, as articulated in his influential 2015 JAMA perspective. As a leading expert in the organization, cost, and efficiency of intensive care units, Dr. Angus continues to shape global standards for critical care delivery while advancing precision medicine approaches to sepsis and acute organ failure. His work on how acute care systems respond to disasters further demonstrates his commitment to strengthening healthcare infrastructure under extreme conditions.
