Hosted by the Max Harry Weil Institute for Critical Care Research & Innovation
the
Wolf Creek XVIII was made possible through the generous support of the Weil Family Foundation .
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• Michigan League Building
• Around Ann Arbor
• Music Festival
• Officials and Guest Speakers
• Wolf Creek 2025 Panelists
• Innovator Award Finalists
11:00 AM
6:00 PM
8:00 AM
8:30 AM
8:45 AM
Biennial Golf Mini-Outing
For guests who registered separately for this event in their travel survey
Welcome Reception at Michigan League Vandenberg Ballroom & Concourse
Registration and ID badges are available here and at the conference tomorrow
Registration & Breakfast at Michigan League Ballroom
Wolf Creek Welcome and Opening Remarks
Robert Neumar, MD, PhD
Welcome and Remarks from the Weil Institute
Kevin Ward, MD
9:00 AM Panel: Cardiac Arrest Survivorship
Featuring: Alex Bowerson, Andrea Bowerson, Ethan King, Carrie King, Matt Wood, and Kenyon Cleghorn
Moderator: Cindy Hsu, MD, PhD, MS
9:30 AM
10:00 AM
Panel: Optimizing Time Intervals in Cardiac Arrest Care
Robert Neumar, MD, PhD; Theresa Olasveengen, MD, PhD; Haruka Takahashi, PhD; Gavin Perkins, MD, MBE; Ruud Koster, MD, PhD
11:00 AM
11:15 AM Panel: Innovations in Defibrillation Science
Ruud Koster, MD, PhD; Peter Kudenchuk, MD, FACP, FACC, FAHA; Sheldon Cheskes, MD; Guiseppe Ristagno, MD, PhD; Gregg Walcott, MD
12:30 PM
1:30 PM
Wolf Creek 2025: Format, Goals & Intro to Programming Break Lunch
Innovator Award Presentations
Filippo Annoni, MD, PhD; Kei Hayashida, MD, PhD; Jacob Hutton, PhD
Candidate; Matthew Kirshen, MD, PhD; Alexis Steinberg, MD
Moderator: Ryan Morgan, MD
4:30 PM
Innovator Award Audience Vote
5:00 PM
Day 1 Conclusion & Free Time
Please plan to arrive at the Graduate Hotel Terrace Ballroom before 6:00 PM for the Wolf Creek Celebration Gala.
6:00 PM
Wolf Creek Celebration Gala at Graduate Hotel
Semi-formal dress code. For men, jackets are preferred but ties are not required.
7:30 AM
8:00 AM
8:30 AM
9:00 AM
10:00 AM
10:30 AM
11:30 AM
12:30 PM
2:30 PM
2:45 PM
OPTIONAL: Funeral for Dr. Douglas Chamberlain
Vandenberg Ballroom at Michigan League. Livestreamed via church website.
Breakfast at Michigan League Ballroom
Wolf Creek Day 1 Recap
Robert Neumar, MD, PhD
Panel: Innovations in ECPR Technology
Demetris Yannopoulos, MD; George Trummer, MD; Yohei Okada, MD, PhD
Break
Panel: Survivorship Science
Sachin Agarwal, MD, MPH; Katie Dainty, PhD; Matthew Wood; Amy Wagner, MD
Lunch
Sponsor and Industry Science Presentations
Break
3-3-6 Cutting-Edge Science Presentations
“Sensitivity analyses to assess bias from withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment in clinical trials” (Clifton Callaway, MD, PhD)
“Community-Based High-Fidelity Simulation to Assess Layperson CPR Performance During T-CPR Instruction” (Ryan Coute, DO)
“INSIGHT-CPR: Integrated Neural networks and wearable Sensor to Instantaneously Guide Hemodynamic-direcTed CPR for cardiac arrest” (Cindy Hsu, MD, PhD, MS)
“Real Time Cardiac Arrest Prediction: Early Warning Signs of Impending Cardiac Arrest Using a Consumer Grade Smartwatch” (Jacob Hutton, PhD Candidate)
“Defining the Physiologic Effects of Veno-Arterial Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation Commencement in Extracorporeal Cardiopulmonary
Resuscitation: A Combined Animal and Human Study” (Rajat Kalra, MBChB, MS)
2:45 PM
5:00 PM
6:30 PM
9:00 AM
“REBOA during conventional and head up CPR” (Keith Lurie, MD)
“Study of Peri-Resuscitation Troponin and Outcomes (SANTO)” (Graham Nichol, MD, MPH, FRCP)
“Multimodal CPR – The Search for Synergy” (Norman Paradis, MD)
“Circulatory impact of insufflated volume and positive end expiratory pressure during cardiopulmonary resuscitation: an animal study arrest” (Renaud Tissier, DVM, PhD)
Dine Around: Collaborative Dinner with Friends
Ann Arbor Music Festival: Top of the Park
Join us at the official Wolf Creek tent and enjoy the sounds of A2SF! Amenities include food trucks and drink tickets/cash bar.
9:15 AM Breakfast at Michigan League Ballroom
Wolf Creek Day 2 Recap
Robert Neumar, MD, PhD
9:30 AM
10:30 AM
Panel: Transforming Clinical Trial Design in Cardiac Arrest Research
Jonathan Elmer, MD, MS, FNCS; Karen Hirsch, MD; Keith Couper, PhD, RN; Clifton Callaway, MD, PhD; Theresa Olasveengen, MD, PhD; Janet Bray, PhD, RN; Will Meurer, MD
Panel: Strategies to Optimize International Collaborations in Cardiac Arrest Research
Janet Bray, PhD; Marcus Ong, MBBS, FRCSEd (A&E), FAMS, MPH; Bryan McNally, MD, MPH; Robert Neumar, MD, PhD; Niklas Nielsen, MD, PhD; Markus Skrifvars, MD, PhD, FCICM
11:30 AM
11:45 AM
12:00 PM Break
Wolf Creek 2025: Summing it Up
Robert Neumar, MD, PhD
Conference Concludes
Robert W. Neumar, MD, PhD
Chair, Wolf Creek Program; Professor and Chair Emeritus, Emergency Medicine, University of Michigan
Dr. Neumar has over 20 years of research experience in the field of cardiac arrest resuscitation and traumatic brain injury. A major focus of Dr. Neumar’s laboratory has been to elucidate the role of calpains in post-ischemic neuronal death and has also focused on optimizing post-cardiac arrest hypothermic targeted temperature management (HTTM). The major focus of his clinical research is optimizing the management of postcardiac arrest syndrome.
Dr. Neumar will also serve on the panels for “Optimizing Time Intervals in Cardiac Arrest Care” and “Strategies to Optimize International Collaborations in Cardiac Arrest Research.”
Kevin Ward, MD
Executive Director, Weil Institute for Critical Care Research & Innovation; Professor, Emergency Medicine and Biomedical Engineering, University of Michigan
Dr. Ward’s research interests span the field of critical illness and injury ranging from combat casualty care to the intensive care unit. His approach is to develop and leverage broad platform technologies capable of use throughout all echelons of care of the critically ill and injured as well as in all age groups. Dr. Ward’s passion is in creating programs which encourage true integration across the disciplines of medicine, engineering, data sciences, and entrepreneurship that accelerate discovery to true patient impact.
At age 18, Alex had a sudden cardiac arrest at a Memphis, MI, high school while warming up (jogging) for wrestling practice. Fortunately, the school’s cheerleading coach, who is also a registered nurse in the ED, was nearby, started immediate CPR, and called for an AED. Although the AED only had 11% battery left, it was sufficient to restart Alex’s heart.
Alex is now starting his junior year at the University of Michigan, where he studies biomedical engineering and is on the pre-med track. He serves as the vice president of the Michigan EMS Club and is an advocate for sudden cardiac arrest awareness and policy reform. He also volunteers, helping with student heart checks. Alex enjoys fishing, being outdoors, and maintaining a healthy lifestyle by staying physically fit. Joining Alex today is his mother, Andrea Bowerson, who will never forget the call she received the day of her son’s sudden cardiac arrest.
Division Chief, Critical Care; Assistant Professor, Emergency Medicine & Acute Care Surgery, University of Michigan
Dr. Hsu strives to transform cardiac arrest care by dismantling the gaps between translational research and clinical implementation, with an emphasis on improving the neurologic outcome of cardiac arrest patients. Her research has spanned from large animal models to clinical trials of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest and other acute conditions, to mixed methods research on emergency trial conducts.
Dr. Hsu will also serve on the panel for “Survivorship Science.”
At age 18, Ethan had a sudden cardiac arrest while running with the MRun Running Club just 5 days after moving to Michigan from the DC/Virginia area to attend the University of Michigan. Two undergraduate students initially resuscitated Ethan, and after learning the 30 other runners did not know CPR, they co-founded Cardiac Arrest Preparation (CAP), where they have already trained over 300 student-athletes in hands-on CPR and AED training.
He was without a pulse for 6 minutes while CPR continued, and an Ann Arbor first responder defibrillated him. His mom, Carrie King, received a call from the emergency department social worker, and they immediately started the 530-mile trek back to Ann Arbor. A day later, Ethan squeezed his mother’s hand, and he woke up.
Ethan is now starting his sophomore year at the University of Michigan, where he studies aerospace engineering. He also works at the Air and Space Smithsonian while home in VA. He has just returned from a trip to South Korea with friends and plans to visit Scotland in July to see another friend. He enjoys cooking, hiking, sailing, and hanging out with his family and friends.
At age 49, Matt had a sudden cardiac arrest in his home, just two months after suffering a myocardial infarction. While using a pulse oximeter, Matt was documenting his low pulse and irregular heart rhythm at the time to share with his doctor. Within seconds, his heart rate went from 32 to 129 and higher before going into ventricular fibrillation. Matt collapsed to the floor. Lucikly, his spouse, Kenyon, heard the crash. He immediately rushed downstairs, identified Matt was in cardiac arrest, retrieved the house phone, dialed 911, unlocked the front door, and began handsonly CPR. Within 4-minutes of the 911 call EMS arrived and continued CPR for 30 minutes including 7 defibrillations, Matt began to wake up. Matt left his corporate communications position to focus on his recovery and has become an active SaveMiHeart volunteer, where he leads a monthly virtual Sudden Cardiac Arrest Survivor meet-up group and is a SCA Survivor advocate. Matt enjoys photography, travel, cooking, entertaining, singing, advocacy, public speaking, and spending time with family.
Professor, Cardiology; Professor, ACS - Heart Failure & Arrhythmias; Amsterdam UMC
Dr. Koster initiated the AmsteRdam REsuscitation STudies (ARREST) in 1992, a registry of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in part of the Netherlands, which is still ongoing. His research involves all aspects of basic life support and defibrillation, more recently focused on implementation of AEDs in the home environment.
Dr. Koster will also serve on the panel for “Innovations in Defibrillation Science.”
Adjunct Professor, Anesthesia and Intensive Care Medicine, Oslo University Hospital
Dr. Olasveengen is a cardiac arrest researcher with special interest in post-arrest brain injury. She is a member of the Science Advisory Committee for the International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation (ILCOR), the Advanced Life Support Science and Education Committee for the European Resuscitation Council (ERC) and board member of the Norwegian Cardiac Arrest Registry.
Dr. Olasveengen will also serve on the panel for “Transforming Clinical Trial Design in Cardiac Arrest Research.”
Dean of Medicine, University of Warwick
Dr. Perkins is Dean of Medicine at Warwick Medical School, University of Warwick, Honorary Professor of Critical Care Medicine at University Hospitals Birmingham, Non-Executive Director at University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire, and Editor-in-Chief of Resuscitation Plus. He has published over 500 papers and played a key role in developing the evidence base relating to cardiac arrest through his leadership of the UK National Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrest Outcomes Registry and the PARAMEDIC trials as well as research on CPR Feedback and Debriefing.
PhD Candidate, Nippon Sports Science University
Haruka Takahashi is currently a PhD student at the Nippon Sports Science University She also began a one-year visiting research internship at Duke-NUS Medical School starting July 1, 2024. Her main topics of research include emergency systems, heatstroke, dispatcher-assisted CPR, and emergency systems in low- and middle-income countries
Professor, Emergency Medicine, Family and Community Medicine, University of Toronto
Alongside his role at the University of Toronto, Dr. Cheskes is also a scientist at the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute at St. Michael’s Hospital and an affiliate scientist at Sunnybrook Research Institute. He is one of the principal investigators for the Canadian Resuscitation Outcomes Consortium and is a recognized international authority in the area of CPR quality and out-of-hospital cardiac arrest resuscitation.
Professor of Medicine,University of Washington
Dr. Kudenchuk is a UW Professor of Medicine in the Department of Medicine’s Division of Cardiology, Arrhythmia Services. His interests include sudden cardiac arrest and cardiac resuscitation, the management of atrial fibrillation, implantable devices such as pacemakers and defibrillators, and the clinical management of cardiac arrhythmias.
Associate Professor, Department of Pathophysiology and Transplantation, University of Milan
Dr. Ristagno is an anesthesiologist focused on preclinical and clinical studies on cardiac arrest with main focus on defibrillation and neuroprotection.
Gregory Walcott, MD
Associate Professor, Cardiovascular Disease and Biomedical Engineering, University of Alabama at Birmingham
Dr. Walcott is Professor of Medicine, Division of Cardiovascular Disease, and Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Yohei Okada, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor, Health Services and Systems Research, Duke-NUS Medical School
Dr. Okada served as an emergency physician at one of Kyoto’s leading trauma and critical care centers. His PhD at Kyoto University’s Graduate School of Medicine focused on integrating clinical expertise with advanced research methodologies. This combination of rigorous clinical training and academic excellence positioned Dr. Okada as a uniquely qualified clinician-scientist who bridges frontline emergency care with
Head, Cardiovascular Surgical ICU, Cardiovascular Surgery, University of Freiburg
Dr. Trummer is a Cardiac Surgeon specialized in intensive care medicine, extracorporeal circulation and resuscitation. The daily routine in organ protection and extracorporeal circulation led to research on controlled whole body reperfusion (“CARL”) after cardiac arrest using extracoporeal circulation. This started in 2003 at UCLA and is ongoing in Freiburg/Germany with paralleled engineering of suitable medical devices in a spin-off of the University of Freiburg.
Professor, Medicine; Research Director, Interventional Cardiology, Director, Resuscitation Medicine University of Minnesota
Dr. Yannopoulos has dedicated his scientific and academic career in the field of resuscitation. He is the Principal Investigator of the NIH-funded ARREST Trial. Dr. Yannopoulos has been actively redefining the future of time-sensitive interventions in the emergency medical field, and designed the first-of-its-kind medical mobile ECMO truck used to deliver immediate medical care to cardiac arrest patients.
Associate Professor, Neurology, Columbia University
Dr. Agarwal is a nationally and internationally recognized expert in the treatment of neurological intensive care in the Department of Neurology’s Division of Neurocritical Care and Hospitalist Neurology. He is an expert in post-cardiac arrest care, treatments, and outcomes. He is the founder and director of the nation’s first interdisciplinary, multispecialty NeuroCardiac Comprehensive Care Clinical & Research Program (N4C) to understand the underpinnings of cardiac arrest survivorship and recovery for both patients and their family members discharged after cardiac arrest at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center.
Research Chair, Patient-Centered Outcomes, North York General Hospital, University of Toronto
Dr. Dainty is a researcher focused on issues related to patient and family experience, implementation science, patient-centered outcome measures and quality improvement in community health care environments. Her research focuses on using robust qualitative methods to unpack long-held assumptions about bystander experience and survivorship following sudden cardiac arrest.
Professor, Neuroscience; Vice-Chair, Faculty Development; Endowed Chair for Translational Research, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, University of Pittsburgh
Dr. Wagner’s research uses biomarkers as tools for developing and optimizing personalized treatments and outcomes for individuals with disability, particularly with traumatic brain injury (TBI) and with cardiac arrest. She holds a secondary appointment in the Department of Neuroscience, is Associate Director for Rehabilitation Research at the Safar Center for Resuscitation Research, and is President of the National Neurotrauma Society.
Associate Professor, Pre-hospital, Emergency and Trauma Unit, School of Public Health and Preventative Medicine, Monash University
Prof. Bray’s background in cardiac and intensive care nursing has driven her research career to improve outcomes for critically ill cardiovascular patients—particularly those experiencing cardiac arrest, heart attack and stroke. Dr. Bray’s research program aims to improve the public’s recognition and response to acute cardiovascular symptoms and improve the evidencebase for acute cardiovascular care. Her published research includes multicenter randomised control trials (AVOID, RINSE).
Dr. Bray will also serve on the panel for “Strategies to Optimize International Collaborations in Cardiac Arrest Research.”
Distinguished Professor and Executive Vice-Chair, Emergency Medicine; Ronald D. Stewart Chair of Emergency Medicine Research, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
Dr. Callaway’s current research focuses on resuscitation medicine with emphasis on brain injury after cardiac arrest and translational research on the topic of resuscitation from sudden death. He has collaborated with pre-hospital care providers and emergency physicians to study acute cardiac interventions, developed a platform to study intensive care interventions, and worked with partners in rehabilitation to study neurological and functional outcomes after cardiac arrest.
Associate Professor, Emergency and Critical Care, University of Warwick
Dr. Couper is an Associate Professor in Emergency and Critical Care, based in the Emergency, Prehospital, Perioperative and Critical Care (EPPiC) research group at Warwick Clinical Trials Unit. His research focuses on the entire patient journey of critically ill patients from the pre-hospital setting to post-discharge care. He has a particular interest in the treatment of cardiac arrest. His clinical background is critical care nursing, and he continues to work clinically as a critical care outreach nurse practitioner at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust.
Associate Professor, Emergency Medicine, Critical Care Medicine, and Neurology; Director, UPMC Organ Donor Support Service, University of Pittsburgh
Dr. Elmer is a physician-scientist working to improve survival and good functional recovery after resuscitation from sudden cardiac arrest. He works to achieve this goal by translating existing best practice neurocritical care to this important patient population, while developing and testing new strategies to detect, prevent and treat secondary brain injury. Specific focuses of his current research are quantitative electroencephalography, multimodal neurological monitoring and big data/novel analytical methods to effectively summarize and identify patterns in these complex, longitudinal data.
Associate Professor, Neurology and Neurosurgery, Stanford University and Stanford Health Care
Dr. Hirsch’s research focuses on using continuous and discrete multi-modal data to develop phenotypes and identify signatures of treatment responsiveness in patients with coma after cardiac arrest. She is the Co-PI of PRECICECAP (PRecision Care In Cardiac ArrEst - ICECAP, NINDS R01 NS119825-01) and works closely with collaborators in data science at Stanford and with industry partners to apply machine learning analyses to the complex multi-modal ICU data. Dr. Hirsch also studies neuroimaging in post-cardiac arrest coma and traumatic brain injury.
Professor, Emergency Medicine and Neurology, University of Michigan
Dr. Meurer’s focus is on the treatment of acute neurological emergencies, both as a researcher and clinician. He has been part of the University of Michigan Acute Stroke Team since 2006. In addition, he has experience enrolling patients in acute trials and has served as a local PI for the CLEAR-ER trial (a trial enrolling acute stroke patients in the ED that tested a reperfusion strategy). He is on the executive team of the Strategies to Innovate EmeRgENcy Care Clinical Trials Network (SIREN). He has other active or recently completed NIH funded clinical trials involving acute vertigo in the emergency department, hypertension, and therapeutic hypothermia after cardiac arrest.
Senior Consultant; Director of Research; Clinican Scientist, Emergency Medicine, Singapore General Hospital
Prof. Ong is Senior Consultant, Director of Research, and Clinician Scientist in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Singapore General Hospital. His research studies focus on prehospital emergency care, medical devices, data science and health services.
Bryan McNally, MD, MPH
Professor of Emergency Medicine, Emory School of Medicine
Dr. McNally’s research interests in emergency medicine, EMS and public health involve time sensitive cardiac conditions including sudden cardiac arrest and myocardial infarction.His focus has been in the development of registries both locally, nationally and internationally that allow for benchmarking of care in an effort to improve survival.
Associate Professor, Clinical Sciences, Lund University; Helsingborg Hospital
Dr. Nielsen’s current research interest is on various aspects of post-cardiac arrest care with focus on temperature management, trial methodology, trial conduct, prediction and follow-up. He did his PhD on induced hypothermia after cardiac arrest with a clinical focus organizing the international Hypothermia Network Registry, now renamed the International Cardiac Arrest Registry (INTCAR). The thesis led to the design and conduct of the Targeted Temperature Management 33°C versus 36°C after Cardiac Arrest (TTM-trial), for which Dr. Nielsen was principal investigator and lead author.
Staff Specialist, Anaesthesiology & Intensive Care; Professor, Prehospital Emergency Medicine, Helsinki University
Dr. Skrifvars is Staff Specialist in Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care and Professor of Prehospital Emergency Medicine. He has trained in Finland and Australia and completed both the European Diploma of Intensive Care as well as the Fellowship of Intensive Care Medicine (FCICM). He has published over 240 scientific publications and supervised six PhDs focusing on emergency and intensive care of cardiac arrest and traumatic brain injury. He was a member of the steering group of the TTH48 trial and the principal investigator of the COMACARE trial. His research group focuses on both experimental and clinical studies in the field of cardiac arrest and traumatic brain injury. He is one of the lead investigator of the STEP CARE (Sedation, TEmperature and Pressure after Cardiac Arrest and Resuscitation).
Filippo Annoni, MD
Erasme Hospital
Matthew Kirshen, MD, PhD, FAAN, FNCS
Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
Kei Hayashida, MD, PhD
Jacob Hutton, PhD Candidate
Northwell Health University of British Columbia
Moderator & 2023 Innovator Awardee
Alexis Steinberg, MD Ryan Morgan, MD
University of Pittsburgh Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
Thank you to our sponsors for supporting Wolf Creek XVIII!
Be sure to visit their tables, located in the Hussey Room on Floor 2!
