Elaine Fajardo, MD

As an Academic Clinician, I spend a majority of my clinical time in the MICU, and I have a natural interest in the management of acute respiratory failure with mechanical ventilators. I have lectured on the basics of mechanical ventilation, ventilator dyssynchrony and ARDS. I am on the multidisciplinary VV ECMO group, which specifically manages advanced acute respiratory failure requiring ECMO support. As the YNH Medical Director of Respiratory Care, I am interested in the appropriate use of non-invasive positive pressure ventilation (NIPPV) for adults with acute respiratory failure, and have spearheaded NIPPV guidelines and systems measures to assess and improve our practices. I am involved in several committees in the MICU dedicated to quality improvement for airway management and procedures. For research, I am sub-investigator in the PreVents 2 study, which is a randomized control trial across multiple acute care settings, which is evaluating patient outcomes in 2 different endotracheal tubes. In terms of innovation, I was involved in the development of 2 split ventilator devices at Yale, during the time of the COVID-19 surge and ventilator shortage. One of those devices was approved for emergency use authorization in the US. During COVID, I had the unique experience of managing the limited supply of critical care ventilators and incorporated second tier or non-critical ventilators to mitigate a ventilator shortage. This experience allowed me to develop some expertise for the nuanced and pandemic specific management of ARDS on non-critical care ventilators. My expertise with COVID related respiratory failure and mechanical ventilators has lead to speaking opportunities such as CDC conference, the France Foundation on twitter and the CT Society for Respiratory Care.