As a flight surgeon with the U.S. Air Force in the 1990s, Stephen Kimatian, M.D., combined his love for aviation with a career in medicine. Today, the licensed pilot spends more time on the ground, but the lessons learned in the military laid the foundation for his new role overseeing a department.

“I have no doubt that my success as a leader, and my appointment as Chair of the Department of Anesthesiology & Pain Management, stems from the leadership skills I acquired while serving in the United States Air Force,” Dr. Kimatian said.

His appointment, which took effect Dec. 1, followed a national search and came nearly a year after Dr. Kimatian began serving as Interim Chair of the Department. In 2017, Dr. Kimatian joined UTSW as Professor and Vice Chair of Pediatric Anesthesiology. He has also been the Anesthesiologist in Chief at Children’s Health.

In his clinical practice, Dr. Kimatian specializes in pediatric and congenital cardiac anesthesiology. His research focuses on neuroprotection during the perioperative period, particularly pediatric patients with congenital heart disease. He is also a specialist in aerospace medicine who has published numerous papers focused on graduate medical education and leadership development.

Among his latest honors, Dr. Kimatian was named a Distinguished Teaching Professor by the UT Southwestern Academy of Teachers in 2023, received the Duke Award for Excellence and Innovation in Anesthesia Education from the Society for Education in Anesthesia in 2020, and was named a Distinguished Educator by the American Society of Anesthesiologists in 2019.

“Dr. Kimatian’s leadership in all areas of our mission will elevate the Department of Anesthesiology & Pain Management and position our institution as a national hub for clinical excellence and innovation in anesthesiology for adult and pediatric patients,” said W. P. Andrew Lee, M.D., Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs, Provost, and Dean of UT Southwestern Medical School.

Dr. Kimatian earned his medical degree at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at SUNY University in Buffalo. He completed a residency in anesthesiology at Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center and received advanced fellowship training in pediatric anesthesiology at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center in Ohio.

A Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Air Force Reserve, Dr. Kimatian started his career on active duty as a Flight Surgeon for Air Force Special Operations Command and served as Chief of Aerospace Medicine for the 16th Operations Support Squadron. His military service is distinguished. He received the Air Force Commendation Medal, the Meritorious Service Medal, and the Malcolm C. Grow Award as the USAF Flight Surgeon of the Year.

Center Times Plus spoke with Dr. Kimatian about his career and plans for the Department of Anesthesiology & Pain Management.

What led you to specialize in pediatric and congenital cardiac anesthesiology?

As a physician, when you care for a child, you are doing more than “just treating a patient” – you are helping to heal an entire family and set the stage for that child’s future. An investment in making lives better for children is an investment in the future, and that is what drew me to focus my career on the pediatric population. As to why congenital cardiac anesthesiology, I have always been drawn to a challenge, and you can make the argument that there is no more challenging disease field to study. Caring for patients with congenital heart disease entails working with some of our smallest and most vulnerable patients and requires an in-depth understanding of physiology, pharmacology, and fluid dynamics in a constantly changing environment.

What is your vision for the Department of Anesthesiology & Pain Management?

Having served as Interim Chair over the past year, I can say from firsthand experience that we have an outstanding Department with tremendous potential. Our core values of patient safety, clinical excellence, research that advances the science of anesthesia, and education that instills intellectual curiosity remain unchanged. My vision for the Department of Anesthesiology & Pain Management is one that positions us as leaders in perioperative medicine, shepherding patients through their surgeries and making traumatic life-changing events “nonevents.” And for our hospital and surgical partners, we aspire to be drivers of quality, safety, and efficiency.

How did your service in the Air Force influence your career in medicine?

“Integrity First, Service Before Self, Excellence in All We Do” are the core values of the United States Air Force, and I still strive to live by these values every day. I have been a pilot for over 40 years, and serving as a Flight Surgeon has given me an opportunity to incorporate my love of aviation into my medical career. I went directly out of internship to my first active-duty assignment with Air Force Special Operations Command; it was a formative experience that provided an education like no other. As a newly minted Captain, I was fortunate to have NCOs (Noncommissioned Officers) who took me under their wing, showed me the ropes, and helped me develop strategy, planning, and leadership skills that I still lean on to this day. There are a lot of parallels between the team structure in the Special Operations community and the perioperative workspace. This should not be surprising since, at their foundation, both are tightly knit groups of highly trained professionals working in a high-stakes, high-pressure environment.

What aspect of graduate medical education has been most rewarding?

The most rewarding part of being an educator is seeing your trainees go on to do great things. Over the past 25 years, I have signed close to 500 diplomas for residents and fellows going into practice, and as co-Director of the Society for Education in Anesthesia Workshop on Teaching, we have had close to 1,000 graduates from around the world. I have been thrilled to see graduates go on to be program Directors leading their own training programs, researchers with National Institutes of Health grants, Division Chiefs running clinical services, and even Chairs. Being part of the graduate medical education community has given me the privilege of working with some truly remarkable physicians, and contributing to their education allows me to make a small contribution to medicine that will endure beyond my time in practice.

What advances in anesthesiology and pain management do you see on the horizon?

Advanced interoperative neuromonitoring to tailor anesthetic dosing to the individual is becoming a technology that will change the way we administer anesthetics. Everyone responds to anesthetics differently, and with current methods we can adjust anesthetic depth using indirect monitors like heart rate or blood pressure. The ability to monitor EEG (brain waves) in real time allows us to directly watch the brain’s response to our anesthetics, ensuring adequate depth of anesthesia during the surgery without oversedation. Preliminary research in this area points to quicker recovery and better patient outcomes, which is especially important to pediatric populations, since the patient’s brain is still developing, and to our geriatric population at risk for postoperative cognitive decline. The Department of Anesthesiology & Pain Management at UT Southwestern is proud to be among a small group of programs nationally doing research to advance this technology.