Mortality in the first 30 days after surgery is the third most common of cause of death in the United States. Disturbingly, most of these deaths are in-hospital mortality - that is, while under our direct care and in the best hospital systems in the country. It is therefore imperative to strive towards high-quality, affordable, and safe care across the perioperative surgical continuum. The Department of Anesthesiology at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist and Wake Forest University School of Medicine is home to this initiative.

Our multi-disciplinary team includes:

  • Clinical research technicians
  • Clinical research associates
  • Research nurses
  • Research scholars
  • Data scientists
  • Research administrators
  • Clinical and basic science collaborators with surgical and medical specialties in the perioperative and critical care outcomes space

We are supported by the Wake Forest Center for Biomedical Informatics (WFBMI) with a strategic partnership. This further empowers the POIC by the complementary integration of the expertise of provided by the WFBMI. 

Vision and Mission

The vision and mission of the POIC is to create a common ground for research, analytics, outcomes, and quality to improve patient-centric outcomes for our perioperative surgical population. We invite collaborators, sponsors, and other research organizations to work with us as they look to design and perform clinical trials, research on Real-World Data, advanced analytics techniques, and predictive models in critical care, perioperative medicine, acute care medicine, anesthesiology, surgery and much more. 

Potential offerings

  • Growing cross-departmental research collaboration with Anesthesiology, Internal Medicine, Surgery, Geriatric Medicine, Critical Care Medicine and others
  • Using, testing and validating novel and innovative monitoring devices and sensors across the care continuum 
  • Local, region, national, and international partnerships with external investigators, academic centers, industry partners, and the rapidly expanding Atrium health system to coordinate and participate in important clinical trials and funding opportunities 
  • Collaboration with Wake Wings and Surgical Quality Continuum
  • Alignment with clinical quality and research goals of Wake Forest Baptist, Wake Forest University School of Medicine and the Atrium Health Enterprise