Dr. Noah Jouett graduated from his combined Neuroanesthesiology and Neurocritical Care Fellowship at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in June of 2024. His neuroanesthesia training was embedded in his 2-year Neurocritical Care Fellowship Program.
The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center obtained its ICPNT certification in 2023 for its Neuroanesthesia Program. The Program Director is Dr. David McDonagh, MD MBA. Dr. Jouett is the program’s first ICPNT graduate.
ICPNT Fellowship Experience at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Texas, USA
From Dr. Jouett: I first entered anesthesia with an interest in caring for the sickest patients, which initially steered me toward cardiac anesthesiology. However, after the first month of my neuroanesthesia rotation, I was hooked. The brain is essentially the final frontier of medicine and as one of SNACC’s senior members often states, the future of anesthesia is not in the chest, but in the skull. The advancements in our subspecialty have parallelled the advancements in neurology and neurosurgery and there is still so much more ground to cover. During my training, my curiosity expanded from inside the neurosurgical operating room towards the neurosciences intensive care unit, and as my anesthesia residency was coming to an end, I was looking for a fellowship program that could suit my desire to care for complex neurosurgical patients both inside and outside of the operating room. Thankfully I didn’t have to look far, as the perfect program to cater my interests was the same institution where I completed residency—the University of Texas Southwestern (UTSW) Medical Center. Dr. David McDonagh was already my clinical and research mentor throughout my senior years of residency and had guided numerous other anesthesiologists through combined neurocritical care/neuroanesthesia training. Hence, I applied for and was ultimately accepted into the 2-year UTSW Neurocritical Care Fellowship Program, with embedded neuroanesthesia training. It was one of the best decisions I’ve made in my life thus far.
My fellowship was two years of learning how to care for neurologically critically ill patients, often with extremely difficult neurosurgical conditions, including complex intracranial aneurysms and arterial venous malformations that required multidisciplinary care. My program exposed me to patients with virtually every type of neurological critical illness, both inside the operating room and the intensive care unit and gave me the training and confidence to provide high-quality perioperative care for these challenging patients. I had the privilege of working with some amazing faculty who not only taught me but mentored me along my developing career path. I also got to participate in ongoing clinical research trials, including the BOOST-III study which investigates the effect of advanced intracranial monitoring and treatment algorithms on patients with severe traumatic brain injury. I am extremely thankful I was given the opportunity to stay on as faculty, where I am working in my dream job as a neuroanesthesiologist, neuro-intensivist, and researcher.
I would be remiss if I didn’t thank my mentors who helped me along the way—Dr. David McDonagh and Dr. Ulrike Hoffmann, from whose wisdom I constantly benefit. I also want to thank the neurology-based neurocritical care faculty, Dr. Ranier Reyes, Dr. Stephen Figueroa, and Dr. Venkatesh Aiyagari, all of whom are incredible physicians and educators. As a non-neurologist in neurocritical care, their perspective has provided me unique and invaluable insights. Finally, I am grateful to SNACC and to the ICPNT, whose work to advance the education and training of interested people like me fills a significant gap in clinical neuroscience. I am eternally thankful for the support and the opportunity.
Figure 1: Dr. Noah Jouett (right of each photo) with colleagues.
