Dr. Bentley Bobrow Joins Department of Emergency Medicine at UA College of Medicine – Tucson

February 5, 2015

Bentley J. Bobrow, MD, FACEP, FAHA, internationally recognized for his contributions to the field of resuscitation science and emergency medical care, has joined the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson as distinguished professor. He also will join Daniel Spaite, MD, as co-director of EMS research and associate director of the Arizona Emergency Medicine Research Center - Phoenix. 

Dr. Bobrow currently serves as the medical director for the Arizona Department of Health Services’ Bureau of Emergency Medical Services (EMS) and Trauma System. He will continue to serve in this role as he joins the UA academic faculty.     

Dr. Bobrow is renowned for his work on implementing and measuring systems of care aimed at improving outcomes for time-sensitive emergency medical conditions, such as out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA), ST-Elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) and traumatic brain injury (TBI). He has partnered with public health officials, EMS agencies, municipal fire departments, hospitals, university researchers and the public to develop a statewide reporting and educational network for responding to out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. This statewide system of care has resulted in a doubling in the rate of bystanders performing CPR and a quadrupling of survival with good neurologic outcome from sudden cardiac arrest in Arizona since 2004.

Dr. Bobrow is the principal investigator for the HeartRescue Program – Arizona, which implements and measures system-wide resuscitation interventions for OHCA in the state. This includes the integration of OHCA care across multiple 9-1-1 centers, 120 EMS agencies and 40 hospitals. He is the technical adviser for the HeartRescue Global Project, which implements best practices for acute cardiac care in several nations, including China and India. Dr. Bobrow is the medical director of a Clinton Global Health Initiative to implement and measure Telecommunicator-CPR across the United States and in 11 countries in Asia. 

Dr. Bobrow is co-investigator for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) R01 study “Excellence in Prehospital Injury Care (EPIC) Traumatic Brain Injury” and is a member of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) Committee on Treatment of Cardiac Arrest: Current Status & Future Directions. He is chairman of the advisory board for the Cardiac Arrest Registry to Enhance Survival (CARES) Program and past chair of the American Heart Association Basic Life Support Subcommittee.

He is the recipient of the American Heart Association’s Best Resuscitation Science Award; Compassion in Action, Disaster/Emergency Services Award from the American Red Cross; Outstanding EMS Contribution Award from the Arizona EMS; John M. Doll Memorial Award for Outstanding Contribution to Public Health Literature from the Arizona Department of Health Services; Public Leadership Award  from the Sudden Cardiac Arrest Association; Vision Award from the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials; Outstanding Contribution to EMS from the  Arizona Emergency Medical Systems; Public Health Service Award from the Arizona Medical Association/Arizona Department of Health Services; and National Clinical Trial of the Year Award by the Society for Clinical Trials.

A graduate of the UA, Dr. Bobrow received his medical degree from Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia and his emergency medicine residency training at Maricopa Medical Center in Phoenix. He has published more than 80 peer-reviewed articles and more than 100 abstracts.

“Dr. Bobrow is one of the leading EMS researchers in the world and I couldn’t be prouder that he has chosen to join our department,” said Samuel Keim, MD, chair, UA Department of Emergency Medicine. “He has already established strong collaborative and mentoring relationships with our faculty and I predict these relationships will grow further in the future."