VA Palo Alto Health Care System
Dr. Geoffrey Lighthall, Staff Physician, Anesthesiology
Dr. Geoffrey Lighthall, MD, PhD, studied at the University of California at Santa Cruz and at San Diego and received his medical and graduate degrees from University of Maryland Medical School. He served as chief resident during his anesthesia residency at Stanford and completed a fellowship in Critical Care Medicine in 2000. Board certified in both Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine, he provides cardiothoracic anesthesia and critical care services. He serves as the chair of the CPR committee and the Medical Director of the VA Palo Alto eTeam program.
His academic focus is on improving the performance and delivery of medical care to critically ill patients, including establishing better definitions of critical illness and creating means to better identify patients that benefit from ICU admission. In the past, this has led to studies on the prognostic value of vital signs in ward patients, creation of a medical emergency team, and establishment of improved systems to examine the origin and outcomes of critical events, such as codes, emergency team calls, and ICU admissions.
To improve the delivery of key resources to critically ill patients, the VA Palo Alto has been one of the earliest users of diagnostic modalities, such as portable echo and point-of-care blood gas analysis, continuous monitoring of at-risk ward patients, and a leader in the triage and early care of septic patients who arrive in the emergency department. To improve the care of patients once in the ICU, Dr. Lighthall has promoted the use of simulation systems to introduce the concepts of teamwork to the ICU staff and trainees, and developed simulation-based metrics of performance in managing septic shock and improving ICU educational programs.
