Brian Fuller, MD, MSCI, FCCM

Associate Professor, Anesthesiology & Emergency Medicine

Brian Fuller holds a Bachelor of Science in Biology from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where he graduated in 1998. He graduated from the University of Alabama School of Medicine in 2003 and then entered the four-year residency program in Emergency Medicine at the University of Cincinnati, serving as chief resident during his final year. Upon completion of residency in 2007, he opted for further training in Critical Care Medicine, and completed the two-year multidisciplinary critical care fellowship at Cooper University Hospital in Camden, New Jersey in 2009. In 2009, he came to Washington University in St. Louis, where he was the first clinician with dual training, board certification, and appointments in both Emergency Medicine and Critical Care Medicine. His primary clinical duties are in the Surgical/Trauma Intensive Care Unit and Emergency Department. He earned his Master’s of Science in Clinical Investigation (MSCI) in 2013 through the Washington University Clinical Research Training Center.

As a clinical outcomes researcher, Dr. Fuller’s primary research interests is in the conduct of pragmatic clinical trials aimed at improving outcomes for patients with respiratory failure along the ED-to-ICU continuum. His research focuses on studying interventions traditionally reserved for the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) to a more proximal time window in presentation, such as the Emergency Department (ED). His research has shown that lung-protective ventilation is uncommon in ED patients, progression to ARDS occurs shortly after admission from the ED, and is associated with how the ventilator is dosed in the ED. Mechanically ventilated ED patients are at risk for worse outcomes by treatment provided (or not provided) in the ED and early ICU course (i.e. accrual of “second hits”). His work has also shown that the early implementation of lung-protective ventilation in the ED is associated with a reduction in pulmonary complications, ventilator duration, and mortality (The LOV-ED Trial). The provision of sedation is also a critical determinant of outcome for mechanically ventilated patients. Dr. Fuller’s research team has demonstrated that early deep sedation in the ED is harmful (ED-SED Study), and they are now working on a clinical trial focusing on goal-directed sedation for mechanically ventilated patients in the ED (ED-SED Pilot Trial).

He has been invited to lecture at numerous venues within the university, to include Pulmonary, Anesthesiology and Emergency Medicine Grand Rounds, the Clinical Research Training Center, and the multidisciplinary critical care lecture series. He has also spoken at multiple national meetings and various universities across the nation. He has over 80 peer-reviewed and non-peer-reviewed publications and has authored several textbook chapters, and critical care board review books. These include mechanical ventilation chapters in what is considered the gold standard critical care textbook (Parrillo/Dellinger) and the first ever neurocritical care textbook. Currently, he serves on the Editorial Board for SHOCK, and multiple committees at Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine. In recognition of his clinical teaching, Dr. Fuller was also awarded the Golden Stethoscope award by the emergency medicine residents for two consecutive years, and nominated for the Dr. Neville Grant Award for Clinical Excellence at Barnes-Jewish Hospital.