Our mission is to improve the health of poisoned patients in our community by educating future leaders in our specialty, conducting impactful, patient-centered research, and delivering holistic bedside toxicologic care.
Leadership
David Liss, MD
Chief, Division of Medical Toxicology
Program Director, Toxicology Fellowship
Associate Professor, Emergency Medicine
“I am proud and thankful to be a part of this medical toxicology division. Our group of dedicated clinicians and innovative scientists are working diligently to deliver the most up-to-date toxicology care and conduct field-changing patient-centered research.”
Education
From fellows and residents to medical students and pharmacists, education is one of the foremost responsibilities of the division of medical toxicology and covers acute care toxicology, critical care, pediatric toxicology, and occupational and environmental toxicology.
Fellowship
We accept up to two fellows each year from emergency medicine, internal medicine and pediatrics. Learn more and apply for our fellowship.
Resident and medical student training
Through our toxicology rotation, medical students, residents and fellows receive the most up-to-date training in the management of poisoning, overdoses and substance use disorders.
Clinical services
Our division provides inpatient medical toxicology consultations to Barnes-Jewish Hospital (BJH) and St. Louis Children’s Hospital and addiction medicine consultation to BJH. We also provide telemedicine medical toxicology and addiction medicine consultation to Missouri Baptist Medical Center as well as outpatient adult and pediatric medical toxicology services through a clinic at the Washington University Center for Advanced Medicine. We treat patients with accidental and intentional overdoses, chemical and lead exposures, snake and spider envenomation, adverse medication reactions, and substance use disorder.
We actively collaborate with the Missouri Poison Center, serve as the HAZMAT physicians for the Saint Louis Urban Search and Rescue Team, assist with medical direction at St. Louis Cardinals and St. Louis Blues games, and work closely with the toxicologists at Bayer and the herpetologists at the St. Louis Zoo.
Research
We support members of the division and fellowship in intramural and extramural research fellowships including the American College of Emergency Physicians’ Emergency Medicine Basic Research Skills, Society for Academic Emergency Medicine’s Advanced Research Methodology Evaluation and Design, American College of Medical Toxicology (ACMT) ANTIDOTE Institute and the Washington University Institute of Clinical and Translational Sciences. Additionally, WashU’s Emergency Care Research Core offers support to all faculty and fellows in the form of study design, regulatory support, statistical expertise and subject enrollment.
Our faculty serve as investigators funded by ACMT Medical Toxicology Foundation, American Academy of Clinical Toxicology, Washington University Institute of Public Health and the NIH. Funded research projects include the Undiagnosed Diseases Network (UDN), the Drug Overdose Toxicosurveillance (DOTS) study and the Next Steps Opioid Use Disorder Initiative. The division also actively participates in the ACMT ToxIC Core Registry — the only nationwide registry of patients evaluated by medical toxicologists.
In addition to clinical research, our faculty serve as reviewers, editors and editorial board members of industry publications and organizations, including Clinical Toxicology, Toxicology Communications, Annals of Emergency Medicine and the Journal of Medical Toxicology. They regularly produce textbook chapters, abstracts for national and regional meetings and toxicology manuscripts.