Dr. Elizabeth Sinz joins WVU Critical Care and Trauma Institute

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Elizabeth Sinz, M.D., M.Ed., anesthesiologist and critical care physician, will become the associate medical director of the WVU Critical Care and Trauma Institute effective Dec. 4.  

The WVU Critical Care and Trauma Institute is the centerpiece of the comprehensive critical care mission WVU Hospitals. Established in December 2015, the Institute oversees care for the most seriously injured and sickest patients. Its team of board-certified surgeons and critical care physicians provides care for thousands of patients every year.

Led by Chair and Executive Director Alison Wilson, M.D., the Institute encompasses WVU Medicine J.W. Ruby Memorial Hospital’s Medical Intensive Care Unit, Surgical Intensive Care Unit, Neuro Critical Care Unit, and Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit. It is also home to Ruby Memorial Hospital’s Trauma Department and Jon Michael Moore Trauma Center, an American College of Surgeons-verified Level I adult trauma center, and the WVU Medicine Children Hospital’s Level II Critical Care and Trauma Center. The Institute works to support the critical care and trauma programs throughout WVU Medicine’s system of hospitals.

Dr. Sinz is returning to WVU Medicine from the Penn State University (PSU) College of Medicine Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine, where she has worked since 2004, most recently serving as the first associate dean for clinical simulation in the PSU College of Medicine, director of the Penn State Health Clinical Simulation Center, and medical director for resuscitation for the Penn State Health Hershey Medical Center. She was a professor of Anesthesiology and Neurosurgery and has previously served as the director of critical care anesthesia, fellowship education, and neuro-anesthesiology.

Previously, she was an associate professor in the WVU Department of Anesthesiology, as well as the Department’s Critical Care Fellowship Program director.

“We are excited to have Dr. Sinz return to WVU,” Dr. Wilson said. “She will bring additional expertise in critical care, critical care competency and quality, and critical care systems, as we work to support all aspects of critical care in the WVU Health System.”

Sinz received her medical degree from the Medical College of Virginia at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. She then completed an anesthesiology residency and critical care medicine fellowship at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. She also completed a research fellowship focused on traumatic brain injury at the Safar Center for Resuscitation Research at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

Board certified in anesthesiology and critical care by the American Board of Anesthesiology, Sinz is a founding member and past president for the Society for Simulation in Healthcare and was elected as a Fellow of that Society. She is also a member of the Society for Critical Care Medicine and was elected as a Fellow of the Society for Critical Care Medicine. She has served as a science editor for the American Heart Association since 2010. She was selected as a Distinguished Educator in the PSU College of Medicine and recently received a Magnet Award from the Penn State Health Hershey Medical Center Department of Nursing for collaborative practice.

“I am very excited to return to WVU to work with Dr. Wilson,” Sinz said. “It has grown and changed a lot since I was here before, but the dedication of the healthcare professionals to the people of West Virginia has remained strong.”

For more information on the WVU Critical Care and Trauma Institute, visit WVUMedicine.org/CriticalCare.