Thomas  Higgins, MD

Department of Internal Medicine
Divison of Critical Care Medicine

• Chief, Critical Care Division

• Professor of Medicine and Anesthesiology, Tufts University School of Medicine

Baystate Critical Care Medicine
759 Chestnut Street
Springfield, MA 01199
v 413.794.5439
f  413.794.5389

email Thomas.Higgins@bhs.org

Fellowships

• Critical Care Anesthesiology
  Massachusetts General Hospital
  Boston, MA

Residency

• Internal Medicine
  The Cleveland Clinic Foundation
  Cleveland, OH

• Anesthesiology
  Massachusetts General Hospital
  Boston, MA

Medical School

• Boston University School of Medicine
  Boston, MA

Board Certification

• American Board of Internal Medicine

• American Board of Anesthesiology

• Certificate of Special Qualification in Critical Care Medicine

Professional Service

• Critical Care Practice Committee (co-chair)

• Medical Staff Health Committee

• Intellectual Property Committee

• Adult Ethics Subcommittee

• Board of Directors, Baystate Medical Educational and Research Foundation

• Society of Critical Care Billing and Coding Oversight Committee

• Project IMPACT Research Committee

Areas of Interest

• ICU Severity-of-Illness Scoring (APACHE, MPM, SAPS, Cardiac Scores)

• Sepsis, Septic Shock, and Pharmacotherapy of Shock States

• ARDS and Mechanical Ventilation including High Frequency Oscillation

• Sedation and Neuromuscular Blockade

• Ethics and End-of-Life Decision-Making

• Simulation in Critical Care Education

Selected Publications

• Rapoport J, Teres D, Steingrub JS, Higgins TL, McGee WT, Lemeshow S:  Patient characteristics and ICU organizational factors that influence frequency of pulmonary artery catheterization.  JAMA 2000;283:2559-2567.

• Teres D, Higgins TL:  What if your hospital informatics department could provide a severity adjuster?  Crit Care Med 2000;28:3570-3571.

• Higgins TL, Murray M, Kett DH, Fulda G, Kramer KM, Gelmont D, Dedhia HV, Levy H, Teres D, Zaloga GP, Ko H, Thompson KA:  Trace element homeostasis during continuous sedation with propofol containing EDTA versus other sedatives in critically ill patients.  Intensive Care Med 2000;26:S413-S421.

• Higgins TL:  Daily versus admission mortality estimates:  Is admission severity yesterday’s news?”  Crit Care Med 2001;29:208-210.

• Higgins, TL:  Nosocomial pneumonia.  Clin Inten Care 2001;12(3):115-126.

• Higgins TL, Steingrub JS:  Advances in the therapy of sepsis.  Today’s Therapeutic Trends. 2002; 20(2): 113-133.

• Higgins TL, McGee, WT, Steingrub JS, Rapoport J, Teres D, Lemeshow S:  Early Indicators of Prolonged ICU Stay:  Impact of illness severity, physician staffing, and pre-intensive care unit length of stay.  Crit Care Med 2003;31:45-51.

• Nathanson BH, Higgins TL, Giglio RJ, Munshi IA, Steingrub, JS:  An exploratory study using data envelopment analysis to assess neurotrauma patients in the intensive care unit.  Health Care Management Science 2003;6:43-55.

• Steingrub JS, Tidswell MA, Higgins, TL:  Hemodynamic consequences of heart-lung interactions.  J Inten Care Med 2003;18(2):92-99.

• Abraham E, Reinhart K, Opal S et al for the OPTIMIST Trial Study Group (Higgins TL):  Efficacy and safety of Tifacogin (recombinant tissue factor pathway inhibitor) in severe sepsis.  A randomized controlled trial.  JAMA 2003;290:238-247.

• Higgins TL, Jodka PG, Farid A:  Pharmacologic approaches to sedation, pain relief and neuromuscular blockade in the intensive care unit.  Part I.  Sedation.  Clin Inten Care 2003;14:1-12.

• Mailloux P and Higgins TL:  Right atrial thrombus leading to altered mental status.  J Cardiothor Vasc Anes.  J Thor CV Anesth 2003;17(4):509-511.

• Higgins TL, Jodka PG, Farid A:  Pharmacologic approaches to sedation, pain relief and neuromuscular blockade in the intensive care unit.  Part II.  Pain Relief.  Clin Inten Care 2003;14:91-98.

• Higgins TL, Jodka PG, Farid A:  Pharmacologic approaches to sedation, pain relief and neuromuscular blockade in the intensive care unit.  Part III.  Neuromuscular blockade.  Clin Inten Care 2004;15(1):1-5.

• Corwin HL, Gettinger A, Pearl RG, CRIT Study (Higgins TL) et al:  The CRIT Study:  Anemia and blood transfusion in the critically ill—Current clinical practice in the United States.  Crit Care Med 2004;32(1):39-52.

• Giuliano KK and Higgins TL:  New-Generation Pulse Oximetry in the Care of Critically Ill Patients.  Am J Crit Care 2005;14:1-13.

• Higgins TL, Steingrub JS, Tidswell MA, Tereso G, McGee WT:  Drotrecogin alfa (activated) in sepsis:  Initial experience with patient selection, cost and clinical outcomes.  J Inten Care Med 2005;20:339-345.

• Moreno RP, Metnitz PGH, Almeida E, et al [SAPS 3 Investigators – Higgins TL]:  SAPS 3—From evaluation of the patient to evaluation of the intensive care unit.  Part 2:  Development of a prognostic model of hospital mortality at ICU admission.  Intensive Care Med 2005;31:1345-1355.

• Higgins TL, Teres D, Copes WS, Nathanson B, Stark M, Kramer A:  Assessing contemporary intensive care unit outcome:  An updated Mortality Probability Admission Model (MPM0-III).  Crit Care Med 2007;35:827-835.

• Nathanson B, Higgins TL, Teres D, Copes W, Kramer A, Stark M:  A revised method to assess ICU clinical performance and resource utilization.  Crit Care Med [in press, 2007]

• Higgins TL:  Quantifying risk and benchmarking performance in the adult intensive care unit.  Journal of Intensive Care Medicine {in press, 2007}

Other Links

• Student Reviews of ICU Rotation:  http://www.scutwork.com/cgi-bin/links/review.cgi?ID=3819
• Editor; Clinical Intensive Care  http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/authors/tcicauth.asp