Thomas Pritchett Bleck, MD

Thomas P Bleck MD MCCM FNCS is professor Emeritus of neurological sciences, neurosurgery, internal medicine (in the division of pulmonary and critical care medicine, and the section of infectious diseases), and anesthesiology at Rush University Medical Center, where he is a neurointensivist and the director of clinical neurophysiology. From 2009 – 2015, he was the associate chief medical officer for critical care. He is an ex officio member of the board of directors of the Neurocritical Care Society, of which he was the founding president. He serves on the editorial boards of Neurocritical Care and Annals of Intensive Care. From 1992 – 2015 he was the neuroscience section editor of Critical Care Medicine, and in October, 2016 became an associate editor. In 2012, he completed 12 years as a member of the Council of the Society of Critical Care Medicine.

In 2015, the American College of Critical Care Medicine and the Society of Critical Care Medicine elected him a Master of Critical Care Medicine; there are 100 masters out of nearly 16,000 members. He was elected to two terms on the board of the American Board of Clinical Neurophysiology. He recently completed two terms on the writing committee of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, and is a member of the American Board of Internal Medicine subspecialty exam committee in critical care medicine.

From 1990 – 2006, he directed the neuroscience intensive care unit at the University of Virginia as the Louise Nerancy eminent scholar in neurology. From 2006 – 2009, he was the Ruth Cain Ruggles chairman of the department of neurology at Evanston Northwestern Healthcare, and professor and vice-chair for academic programs of the Northwestern University department of neurology, where he also directed the section of neurocritical care. His research interests include subarachnoid hemorrhage, intracerebral hemorrhage, head injury, status epilepticus, infections, neuromuscular respiratory failure, and the ICU management of the organ donor. He has been involved in therapeutic temperature modulation research since 1999. He has published 181 papers, 129 abstracts, and 175 books and book chapters; and conducted more than 475 national and international visiting appointments and lectureships in 27 countries.

He is currently the medical safety monitor and an executive committee member of the NINDS Stroke Hyperglycemia Insulin Network Effort (SHINE), a Phase III trial of tight versus loose control of blood glucose in acute ischemic stroke. He is also the safety monitor of the NIH Phase III trial of deferoxamine in intracerebral hemorrhage (iDEF). He serves on the executive committee of a phase III trial of intravascular cooling after cardiac arrest. He chaired the special emphasis panels that established the Neurologic Emergencies Treatment Trial network (NETT). He then chaired the data and safety monitoring committees of two NETT phase III trials, RAMPART and ProTECT. He serves on the executive committee of the newest NETT study, the Established Status Epilepticus Treatment Trial (ESETT). He currently chairs the DSMBs for a phase III trial of intraventricular nimodipine in subarachnoid hemorrhage, and for a phase III trial of allopregnenolone for super-refractory status epilepticus.

Dr. Bleck is board certified in internal medicine, with subspecialty certification in critical care medicine; neurology, with subspecialty certifications in vascular neurology and epilepsy; clinical neurophysiology; and in neurocritical care by both the United Council on Neurological Subspecialties and the Committee on Advanced Surgical Training of the Society of Neurological Surgeons.

He currently serves on the professional development committee and the program advisory task force of the American Neurological Association, as well as the practice and maintenance of certification committees of the American Clinical Neurophysiology Society.