Robert A. Berg, MD, FAHA, FAAP, MCCM

male silhouette icon
Robert A. Berg, MD, FAHA, FAAP, MCCM, is the Russell Raphaley Endowed Chair in the Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

Areas of Expertise: Cardiac Arrest and CPR Ventricular Fibrillation and Defibrillation, Post cardiac arrest care, Resuscitation Science, Clinical Investigator, Transitional Laboratory Research
Locations: Main Hospital; Middleman Family Pavilion
Appointments and Referrals: 1-800-TRY-CHOP (1-800-879-2467)

Background

Bob Berg focused his career on saving lives of critically ill children through outstanding inter-disciplinary clinical care, state-of-the-art clinical and laboratory research, training the next generation of pediatric critical care leaders, continuous quality improvement, and nurturing career development of faculty and trainees. He was recruited to CHOP as the Russell Raphaely Endowed Chair and Chief of CCM from 2008-2022.

Bob has been, and continues to be, a funded laboratory and clinical resuscitation scientist for >30 years, focusing on CPR hemodynamics, hands-only CPR, vasopressors during CPR, post-arrest myocardial dysfunction, VF/defibrillation, in-hospital CPR, prolonged duration CPR, E-CPR and personalized physiologic-directed CPR. Investigations by Bob and his colleagues have led to landmark publications in The New England Journal of Medicine, The Lancet, JAMA, Circulation, the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, Critical Care, Anesthesiology, Critical Care Medicine, and American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. He has authored >500 peer-reviewed manuscripts.

Since 2012, Bob and his colleagues at the CHOP Resuscitation Science Center have led seminal translational investigations resulting in landmark publications demonstrating that physiology-focused hemodynamic-directed CPR improves survival and favorable neurologic outcomes. This team then demonstrated that attaining adequate diastolic blood pressure thresholds during pediatric in-hospital CPR is associated with survival to hospital discharge and survival with favorable neurologic outcome, and they validated these findings in a separate multi-center clinical study. They subsequently demonstrated that attaining mean ETCO2 >20mmHg during CPR is similarly associated with these outcomes.

Bob is most proud of mentoring >100 PCCM trainees and faculty members. Most of these mentees have established themselves as leaders in our field. In the last 10 years, 10 CHOP faculty members received K-awards, and many more have successfully competed for R-level grants. Bob received the CHOP Mentor Award in 2014.

Bob has received numerous national and international resuscitation science honors, highlighted by the 2006 American Heart Association's Lifetime Achievement Award as a Cardiac Resuscitation Scientist, the 2010 International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation's "Giant in CPR" award, the 2019 Society of Critical Care Medicine's Shubin-Weil Master Clinician/Teacher Award, and the 2022 American Academy of Pediatrics Section on Critical Care Distinguished Career Award.

Education and Training

Medical School

MD - College of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, CA

Internship

Pediatrics - University of California, San Francisco, CA

Residency

Pediatrics - University of California, San Francisco, CA

Chief Pediatric Resident - Good Samaritan Hospital, Phoenix, AZ

Fellowship

Pediatric Critical Care - Los Angeles Children's Hospital, Los Angeles, CA

Board Certification

Critical Care Medicine – American Board of Anesthesiology
Pediatrics – American Board of Pediatrics

Titles and Academic Titles

Attending Physician, Pediatric Critical Care Medicine

Russell Raphaley Endowed Chair, Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine

Co-Founding Director, Center for Pediatric Resuscitation

Professor of Anesthesiology, Critical Care and Pediatrics, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania

Departments and Services

Selected Publications

Please follow this link to Dr. Berg’s PubMed Profile.