Rosenblatt Awarded Yale Medicine Distinguished Clinical Career Award

The Yale Medicine Distinguished Clinical Career Award honors physicians who have contributed to Yale Medicine for at least 20 years since completing their fellowship training and whose careers are marked by significant accomplishments, exemplary dedication, and important contributions to advancing the practice, the overall medical profession, and the community. The award is intended to honor faculty members who are widely recognized as distinguished clinicians and who have devoted the main part of their careers to Yale.

Professor of Anesthesiology, YSM

Director, Section of Otolaryngologic Anesthesia, YSM

William H. Rosenblatt, MD, is a professor of anesthesiology at Yale School of Medicine (YSM), a position he has served in for 35 years following the completion of his residency at Yale in 1991. He is also an anesthesiologist at Yale Medicine, with a particular focus on difficult airway management, especially in the context of head and neck surgery.

Globally, Dr. Rosenblatt is widely recognized as being among the foremost experts in complex airway management. His nominator for the award, Lisa Leffert, MD, Nicholas M. Greene Professor and chair of anesthesiology at YSM, stated, “Dr. Rosenblatt’s career is defined by extraordinary bedside skill, clinical acumen, and an unwavering commitment to advancing the highest ideals of Yale School of Medicine. He has consistently served as a model of what it means to be a master clinician: calm under pressure, meticulous in preparation, and steadfast in prioritizing patient well-being.”

A founding member of the Society for Airway Management, Dr. Rosenblatt has devoted his career to advancing the science and practice of difficult airway management. His contributions include the development of the life-saving Airway Approach Algorithm and co-authorship of the 2022 American Society of Anesthesiologists Difficult Airway Algorithm, one of the most widely used clinical decision tools in anesthesiology practice worldwide. He also led the development of Yale’s Airway Consult Service and Threatened Adult Airway Response Team (TAART), directly improving outcomes for some of our most vulnerable patients.

Dr. Rosenblatt has authored and edited numerous peer-reviewed publications, textbook chapters, and educational resources, including serving as co-editor of Master Techniques in Upper and Lower Airway Management, and his publications have garnered more than 4,600 citations. He also created AirwayOnDemand, a YouTube-based educational channel that has surpassed 90,000 subscribers and 50 million views, extending his teaching reach to clinicians across the globe. Over the years, he has led difficult airway workshops across the United States and internationally for decades, training anesthesiologists, nurse anesthetists, and emergency providers at all levels.

In 1991, Dr. Rosenblatt founded Recovered Medical Equipment for the Developing World (REMEDY), a nonprofit organization that recovered and distributed millions of dollars’ worth of unused operating room supplies to healthcare facilities in developing countries. Based within the Department of Anesthesiology, REMEDY grew to include more than 600 affiliated hospitals nationwide. He led the organization for 33 years and was recognized with the 1996 Rolex Award for Enterprise for this work.

Dr. Rosenblatt earned his bachelor’s degree from Wesleyan University and his medical degree from Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. He completed residency training in pediatrics at Stanford University Hospital and in anesthesiology at Yale New Haven Hospital.