Institutes, Divisions & Centers
Anesthesia Research

Pediatric Anesthesiology Research Center (PARC)

Established in 2002, the Pediatric Anesthesiology Research Center (PARC) at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center is the research engine of the Department of Anesthesiology. PARC is supported by a large faculty and extensive collaborations within the department, throughout Cincinnati Children's and the University of Cincinnati, and across the country and the world. Our “bedside to bench to bedside” research environment makes our department exciting and unique. We conduct clinical research in concert with basic science and mechanistic studies to improve clinical care.

PARC has two main goals:  

  • To lead the discovery of molecular, cellular, physiologic and clinical elements of pediatric anesthesia, pediatric pain medicine, and neuroscience, and to translate these elements into clinical practice 
  • To develop the next generation of basic scientists and clinical researchers in anesthesia research

The Department of Anesthesiology places a major emphasis on supporting research and education by providing faculty with both time and resources to find ways to better provide anesthesia care, to relieve pain, to treat epilepsy, and to more safely and effectively manage our pediatric patient populations. The Director of Research, Dr. Michael Jankowski, PhD, is highly committed to promoting the research development of the faculty. The department has a dedicated science writer to support research faculty in the successful development of grant proposals and manuscripts. We conduct monthly research-in-progress sessions for faculty and fellows to provide realtime feedback on each other’s work. The Anesthesia Innovation and Pilot Award is a competitive, internal funding vehicle for projects that are unusual (Innovation) or alternatively, are essential (Pilot), and are therefore good candidates for external funding after preliminary data has been obtained. These mechanisms have led to increasing success at developing junior faculty and facilitating their transition to successful independent investigators.

The Department of Anesthesiology currently has millions of dollars in extramural support and augments this extramural support with an extensive internal research investment. Our basic scientists and clinician-scientist have external support from multiple federal agencies, foundations and academic societies to support our research mission.

Current Projects

Research in the Department of Anesthesiology encompasses basic science, clinical, translational and quality improvement research. Our portfolio includes basic science investigations of developmental neuroscience, clinical studies examining pharmacogenetic mechanisms of various anesthetic agents, and development of new technology, such as virtual reality to help treat pain, in addition to numerous educational and outcomes research programs. Learn More

Faculty Labs

Visit our Anesthesia-related Faculty Labs. Learn More

Research Achievements

2022 Research Annual Report.

Learn more about our most significant findings and view grant funding and division statistics in this year's Research Annual Report.

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