Faculty, staff and students are invited Thursday (Sept. 25) to meet the final candidate for UNMC College of Medicine dean. David H. Chestnut, M.D., Alfred Habeeb professor and chair of anesthesiology and professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), will be available from 7:30 to 8:30 a.m. at the “Ask the Candidate” forum in the College of Nursing, Room 2017.
Dr. Chestnut joined the faculty of the University of Iowa College of Medicine in 1984, and for three years practiced anesthesiology and obstetrics and gynecology. In 1987, he began to devote his clinical practice exclusively to anesthesiology, with an emphasis on obstetric anesthesia.
While at the University of Iowa, Dr. Chestnut developed a maternal-fetal sheep laboratory model, which he used to study the maternal and fetal compensatory responses to various stresses (e.g., sympathectomy, hemorrhage, hypoxia) and the interactions between tocolytic therapy, maternal and fetal hemorrhage and regional anesthesia. His clinical research focused on the effect of epidural analgesia on obstetric outcome. In 1994, Dr. Chestnut was named Alfred Habeeb professor and chair of anesthesiology, and professor of obstetrics and gynecology, at UAB.
Dr. Chestnut is a diplomate of both the American Board of Anesthesiology (ABA) and the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology. He is the editor of Obstetric Anesthesia: Principles and Practice, which is widely regarded as the leading textbook in obstetric anesthesia. The third edition of this textbook will be published in 2004. For 12 years Dr. Chestnut served as a member of the editorial board for the journal Anesthesiology. Currently, he serves as editor-in-chief of Year Book of Anesthesiology and Pain Management.
Dr. Chestnut is a director and treasurer of the American Board of Anesthesiology (ABA). He is an ABA representative to the ABA-ASA In-Training Council, and he formerly served as an ABA representative to the American Board of Medical Specialties. Dr. Chestnut has served as president of the Society for Obstetric Anesthesia and Perinatology (SOAP), and has also served in a variety of leadership positions with the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA). For three years Dr. Chestnut served as ASA liaison to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.