Jim Snyder, a critical care alum and visionary of open lung approach, died at 82
It is with deep sadness that we share the news of the passing of our colleague, friend, and alum Dr. Jim Snyder (Anes ‘1972), who passed away on December 31, 2023, in the Surgical ICU, which he previously ran for over 20 years. He was 82 years of age. He is survived by his wife, Ann, and two children. A memorial is being planned with details to be shared.
Jim received his medical degree from Jefferson University in Philadelphia in 1966, followed by a translational internship and military service requirements until 1970, at which time he entered an Anesthesiology residency at Presbyterian-University Hospital in Pittsburgh, completing training in 1972. His passion for critical care medicine formed during his residency, after which he joined Ake Grenvik, MD as the co-director of the surgical ICU at Presbyterian University Hospital. His academic title of assistant professor was in the Division of Critical Care Medicine in the Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine, a department founded by Peter Safar, MD, and subsequently led by Peter M. Winter, MD. When Ake stepped down as division chief in 1991, Jim became the chief until his retirement in 2000. As a clinician educator, Jim loved to teach at the bedside. His particular interests were in teaching airway management and various ventilatory maneuvers, including recruitment maneuvers to improve gas exchange in ventilator-dependent critically ill patients. In 1986, he took a sabbatical leave to write a textbook in critical care medicine, entitled Oxygen transport in the critically ill. Most of the authors of the various chapters were the young faculty of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and leading clinician-scientists known personally by him. The book was an overwhelming success and solidified his vision of the “Open lung approach” to supporting patients with acute respiratory failure and the rapid identification and treatment of circulatory shock. Both concepts are now firmly in place in the principles of care for the critically ill.
Michael Pinsky, MD, vice chair emeritus, who worked with Jim for nearly two decades, remembers his bedside teaching. “At the bedside, Jim was a gentle leader, soft-spoken and thoughtful. Exact in his approach to endotracheal intubation and ventilator management. His bedside teaching was always patient-centric and paralleled by compassion for the care of the critically ill. Upon retirement, Jim continued to teach the airway management course for new critical care medicine fellows. His legacy endures through the numerous critical care medicine fellow trainees, his academic work embodied by his textbook, and the memories of his colleagues, such as myself, who proudly called him a friend.”
Lori Shutter, MD, vice chair of education remembered, “Jim was a highly valuable member of the airway education program for our trainees.”
Derek Angus, MD, MPH, chair of the Department of Critical Care Medicine said, “Jim was a truly wonderful, intelligent, kind and supportive mentor and coach to so many of us. I am forever grateful to have known and worked with him."
The field of critical care medicine has lost a great physician, investigator, and colleague, and we have lost a member of our family.